Good morning! What a weekend. The war between the Europe Now Movement’s (PES) presidency and its executive committee. Milatovic and Milovic out of the party. Bar and Podgorica committees dissolved. What really happened? Today we will hypothesize.
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What happened with Europe Now Movement and where can that take us?
Milatovic’s resignation from all positions in the party can be taken as a surprise, or not. As a friend of mine says, “in the absence of better sources, I will quote myself”: Two months ago, I wrote the text Jakov Without a Party and stated that already then PES kicked President Milatovic with its statement.
Dealing with politics at a high level entails a state of constant paranoia. Especially in times of political instability. And we returned to it this weekend. From all the powerful strikes and successes of the new ruling majority, one can now freely strike out political stability. Thanks to Jakov Milatovic’s move.
Why has Milatovic decided to do this at this very moment. There are many versions. From the conspiracy theories that this is a battle of influence of various foreign intelligence services, to the much more realistic ones, which include standard court intrigues and games. Several things that have condensed in the last few weeks should be mentioned and included in the analysis. The first is the crisis with the education workers’ strike, in which Milatovic was directly involved, interfering in the work of the government. Another is the meeting and discussion about the diplomatic missions, which acted as reconciliation. The third is the attack on Spajic by Dodik and the direct threat of the alleged disclosure of the way in which the structure of Europe Now has been raised. The fourth is the scandals that followed Milovic and accusations of ties to organized crime. The fifth is the fact that journalists in Serbia are increasingly dealing with the affairs of Jakov Milatovic’s brother, who, in parallel with his brother’s career political successes, has become a successful businessman in Serbia. You know the one when he changed the gym activities and started building roads allegedly with Bajatovic.
Behind the scenes, PES is pushing the story that Milatovic was supposed to be expelled this week and that he resigned to prevent such a decision. Then Milovic was excluded by the presidency of the party, which was more in favour of Milatovic, and which, if you remember, had already excluded Janko Odovic last summer.
Therefore, Milatovic resigned. Now Vijesti will praise him for deciding to become the president of all citizens, without reporting surveys and publications about Milatovic’s brother published by the Serbian Forbes, which is btw owned by the same company owing Vijesti.
It was interesting to follow the posts of Milatovic and the Party on social networks. Milatovic’s announcement about his resignation was not supported by any of the more important members, officials of PES, no by PES Twitter trolls or a group of sympathizers from an NGO that once loved URA. The party’s reaction on Twitter, on the other hand, was supported by several PES MPs. The announcement about the expulsion of Milovic should also be added, which was supported by Twitter trolls who sympathize with PES, as well as a group from the aforementioned NGO that used to love URA.
Milatovic can now do several things. Take care of his work and work on curbing his ego and vanity and thus nominate himself for another term as a factor that can unite the 30-August majority. Or he can go down the path of sectarianism, joining a team that broke away from SNP. Such a political story has the potential of a coalition with the Democrats and URA, but there is a serious risk of a battle of overinflated egos. The personal factor of people like Abazovic and Milatovic is very unpredictable in this case.
Spajic’s success now depends on the ability to tighten the party’s structures. If PES survives this storm, then it’s safe. If they start resigning and disbanding committees, then things will go wrong. The first reactions and the decision of some who were supporting Milatovic to stay in the party, show that Spajic has done his homework. Some of Milatovic’s loyalists may justify their decision to stay in the party by the fact that they will be able to control and monitor the processes, but as time goes on, Milatovic will be more and more distant from the party, and they will be more and more identified with it.
At the same time, everyone is in the safety zone, which they do not want to risk. Milatovic has shown that he does not have the talent to create a team, and particularly to create a party structure.
Some say that DF will profit from this. It won’t. DF has its own discords. An anachronistic ideology and great burdens from the past. The Democrats and URA have no capacity, so Milatovic will not revive them either.
This is a great chance for the opposition led by DPS to show that they put the state’s interest first and position themselves as a guarantor of political stability.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(The opinions and views of the authors of the columns are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
