Good morning! Beneath and behind courteous smiles and positive messages during the visit of the European Commissioner, Mandic and the now-defunct DF used the opportunity to clumsily try to present themselves as still hardline and defiant Serbian nationalists, in the process discrediting Ms Kos before Montenegro’s genuinely pro-European public. This was supported by their and Vucic’s media machinery, spreading disinformation and degrading content about her.
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Undermining Marta Kos’s Visit
Today, I will not write about how ridiculous the efforts of Mandic and his team are—using tapestries, figurines, and petty provocations to prove they haven’t sold out for positions, when everyone knows they have. This was explained in detail by Andrej Nikolaidis in last week’s column.
Here, in the hope that this will reach the European Commissioner directly, I would point out something that her local staff may not explain well enough. I also hope that Mr Sattler will read this. Mainly so that they can save face before the sincere and truly pro-European public. I believe that much that is important can be overlooked—not only for the context of Montenegro, which was one of the stops on the Commissioner’s tour, but also for geopolitics across the Eurasian space.
Andrija Mandic welcomed Commissioner Kos with a model of the Zeta Banovina building, a building-symbol of the subjugation and annexation of Montenegro in 1918, which Mandic deliberately chose as the logo of the Parliament of Montenegro upon taking office, thus expelling state symbols from the parliament. If Ms Kos is not aware, he removed from the main hall of Parliament the historic Montenegrin flag raised on the day of the declaration of independence. He has stylistically aligned the symbols of the parliament with those of the institutions of Serbia and the Serb Republic. Around the world, he distributes tapestries and low-quality images depicting the chapel of Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, which he and the Serbian Orthodox Church want to reinstall on top of Lovcen. All of this that they do and insist on provokes strong reactions and polarises Montenegrin society. Through these intentions, he involves Montenegro’s Western allies in hopes of delegitimising them among the traditionally pro-Western public in Montenegro. In this way, he kills two birds with one stone: he continues to promote himself as a Serbian nationalist while creating resentment toward the West, where it had never existed before. The Russian ambassador has reason to be proud of the man whom Putin once called a “hero.”
His younger protégé at the head of Niksic has done something similar. He presented Commissioner Kos with a painting, likely by the same naïve artist, this time featuring the “Tsar’s Bridge” in Niksic, which was financed by the Russian Emperor Alexander III and has often been used in Russian propaganda in Montenegro. Putin’s clerical-nationalist propagandist Konstantin Malofeev once planned to build an ethno-village dedicated to the Romanovs near this bridge. The message of the “Russian bridge” from the mayor of Niksic, a city that last year “defeated” Ukrainian Lviv in the final for European Capital of Culture, carries particular weight and leaves a bitter taste for anyone aware of what these people are doing and for whose interests.
At the same time, media close to Mandic, such as Adria and Borba, as well as their journalists on local and national public broadcasters, directly and indirectly belittled Commissioner Kos, mentioning alleged affairs, calling her a UDBA agent, and the like.
It is interesting to note that Prime Minister Spajic is increasingly also a target of these media.
During this visit, the Democrats remained in the background. The reasons for this can only be guessed. If this race toward the EU approaches its end, there will be more opportunities to reflect on the foolishness of Mandic and his team. But I do not think we should gloss over them, especially if we are aware that, if you are Mandic’s nephew who fires from an official vehicle and injures people, you can get away completely unpunished.
That’s all for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(Columnists’ opinions and views are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
