Although both the theory and practice of decades-long regimes suggested that Montenegrin Trujillo could not lose the elections he organized himself - a miracle happened. It's done! The last soft dictator of the democratic and pro-Western part of Europe, the last of all war leaders and criminals from the territory of the former Yugoslavia, became a historical figure because he will remain inscribed as the first Montenegrin ruler and despot who was not overthrown by a conspiratorial group but by a pen!
It made sense after all!
First of all, to believe that the day will come when in the small Montenegrin society, with its economic tradition and servant mentality, the democratic majority will be ripe for the electoral change of the three-decade-long rule of one party, that is, one man. Nothing will be the same after that experience and it is hard to imagine that, not only in the near future of Montenegro, any individual or party could establish such a monopoly and build such power as Milo and his DPS have done for the past three decades.
Đukanović ruled Montenegro unscrupulously and autocratically, with the exception of a few years after the break with the criminal policy of Milošević and the Serbian elite, when he changed from a hawk to a dove, asking for forgiveness and support to move to the other, western coast. But, like any despot, as soon as he took root, mastered money and people, gathered in the Party slobberheads, in propaganda ignorant people, in intellectual circles servants and mercenaries, promoting a value system based on Pink culture and Sicilian omerta - Đukanović thought that he alone God who shapes the world according to his own measure.
Milo lost long before August 30, 2020.
Back on May 22, 2006, the day after the referendum, when instead of going into political retirement, he remained to rule, with force and money, choosing to establish a private state instead of building a democratic society. Instead of going down in history, he decided on an adventure that ended last night in the elections. Although he knew how to brag about how much he sacrificed in 1997 when he stood up to Milošević or in 1999 when he turned his back on the Army and the Seventh Battalion or in 2002 when he said NO to Solana, all those historical moments that could have earned him a decent place in Montenegrin memory, they were little for him and his family, biological and other. He stayed after the referendum to show that he did not fight for an independent state because of its emancipation but because of its conquest.
Đukanović lost the day in 2008 when he allowed the public shame of forcing the Minister of Finance to save his family's private bank with the money of the citizens of Montenegro, and then spin one million 11 times to cover the entire amount of the indebted and bankrupt Prva banka. Instead of him and the minister (Lukšić) then resigning, the governor of the Central Bank (Krgović), the only independent institution in small Montenegro, was dismissed.
It was an exemplary example for all others.
Đukanović, therefore, lost when he captured all the institutions and when he made the prosecution, the judiciary, the police, regulatory agencies a mere service for the protection of the private interests of the First Family. The more Đukanović's caste grew richer, the poorer Montenegro became, while the account of his relatives, friends and partners grew at the same speed as the public debt of the country he so ruthlessly led.
Đukanović lost back in 2012 when he decided to erase Lukšić and return to the prime minister's saddle to show us that he can ride (us) even better. He brought in the infamous spin doctor Beba Popović who, in less than four years, made Montenegro a den similar to Serbia, with Pink, Informer, Pobjeda and RTCG he wrote down Montenegro, caused hatred, divisions, tore society up and down, just to make the main enemy , brought the media mafia from Vijesti to its knees. What the local contractors had failed to do, Đukanović believed that he could finish Beba for him, because if he bloodied so much of Serbia, which ultimately led to the assassination of the prime minister, I guess he will easily finish the job in a small pond from Montenegro.
Đukanović lost in 2018 when he decided to return to state politics and run in the presidential elections, although the leading NATO countries sent clear signals that after Montenegro's admission to the Alliance, they no longer want to see the returning Đukanović on the public stage. The private interests of the First Family prevailed again, the works on the villa near Gorica were entering the final stage, and the pharaonic building was ready to accept the host if the work had not been spoiled by Duško Knežević, Djukanović's treasurer for decades, who is now preparing to return to his homeland.
Đukanović lost all the previous years with each new EU report on the progress of Montenegro because in them, instead of decreasing from year to year, the number of homework that Đukanović's regime had to complete actually increased. To European remarks and criticism that the judiciary is captive, that there is no clear line between politics and the mafia, that independent media are under numerous brutal pressures, including physical attacks, that tenders are rigged and corruption is widespread to the point of pain, Đukanović responded with ignorance and self-love, believing that his formula "stabilocracy and not democracy" can keep him as a favorite among Western partners for a long time. Even sometime in 2017, after the EU introduced a new control mechanism in working with candidate countries, which is the balance clause, Đukanović, angry and red in the face, said that negotiations with the EU are a "two-way process" and that if the EU can block us, we can do it too!
These were the first signs that the Leader had killed his strings and jumped from the ground to the clouds. The peak of that autism and self-love was the 2019 DPS Congress and the decision for the Party to declare the fight for the CPC as the issue of all issues! The boss said and Pažin immediately implemented - in December we received a controversial and, from a legal point of view, more than questionable Law on Freedom of Religion, which brought the Church and believers to their feet. But also many dissatisfied. In all similar decades-long dictatorships, there always comes a moment when the Leader makes a suicidal move. Usually it happens at the height of fame and power, when we least expect it, both He and We. Đukanović believed that it would pass with the Church as it did many times before - every marriage in two days, but it turned out that the majority of citizens, whether believers or not, fear Milo less than God.
Đukanović lost after three decades, and if he had not killed himself in arbitrariness and greed, we would not have waited so long for this moment, but he himself would have prepared the ground for change and his departure in a timely manner, even when his young mayor Ivan Vuković wrote to him that strong leadership personalities represent an obstacle to the development of institutions and democracy. Instead of considering why the American Constitution prescribes two mandates and eight years of power as an appropriate term for a responsible politician to do something for his society without falling into the jaws of a seductive government, Đukanović chose the company of Lukashenko, Putin, Aliyev and similar tyrants from former Soviet republics. And that's why he lost.
Which does not mean that there is no chance for "repair". Dockan, but it's better that he at least do something positive for Montenegro on his way out.
The transition of power in any similar situation is a sensitive and risky process. Đukanović now has the opportunity to do everything from the position of the elected president so that Montenegro goes through the period of establishing a new government as painlessly as possible and so that peace, the country's western course and the economy are preserved. May it be eternal.
Bonus video:
