We cannot just calmly watch how they’re destroying a civic, secular, anti-fascist and multi-religious character of this country, as its largest and most important legacy. If they keep touching on these values, and I’m afraid they will, they must count on a larger and more organized resistance, as we all know very well that there are boundaries that must never be crossed, ex-leader of the Liberal Party and president of the Council of the Civic Initiative ’21st of May’, Miodrag Živković, says in an interview for Pobjeda daily.
He also notes that he believes in the maturity of the Montenegrin civic bloc, and that the Civic Initiative ’21st of May’ has been open for cooperation with all Montenegrin civic and minority nation parties.
Speaking about further moves of the CI and its strategy, he says: “As serious men, recognized by the public for our unselfish commitment to the restoration of Montenegro’s independence, its civic and democratic character, this time we also want to help our country correct mistakes from the past and take the direction from 2006. Our strategy comprises two major goals. The first is to maximally contribute to the overthrow of this government in the election, while the second aims not to allow the return to the previous model of running the state.“
Commenting on relations among the members of the ruling majority following the situation with Minister Leposavić, that is, his denial of the Srebrenica genocide and PM’s announcement of the Minister’s dismissal, Mr Živković tells: “The situation they themselves have created best reflects their incapability and political immaturity. Whatever they do, consequences will be severe. Is it going to be humiliation of PM and additional and permanent embarrassment, we shall see. It’s evident that they have no solution to this problem, as the parliament speaker is not convening the session to decide on the matter.”
On amendments to the criteria for obtaining the Montenegrin citizenship and amendments to the residence law, he says: “The government’s intention is clear. They want to take national and election-driven actions in order to be able to insert as many national Serbs who would support them in the forthcoming elections as possible, and, in defiance of current regulations, erase as many non-Serbs on temporary labor abroad as possible, as they don’t possess citizenship other than the Montenegrin one. They know very well those people won’t vote for them but would back their opponents. They wish to erase several tens of thousands non-Serbs and register that same number of Serbs in the electoral roll. Those are national and election-driven actions that must not be allowed, because they’re contrary to law, justice and international practice.”
