Thinking about what the outcome of the latest, fifth or sixth, episode of the political telenovela related to the Fundamental Agreement with the SPC could be associated with, Fridrih Hegel and Momir Bulatović came to mind. Hegel is the author of the idea that "history tends to repeat itself". Karl Marx added - "the first time as a tragedy, the second time as a farce." And in 1997, President Momir Bulatović was the absolute boss of Montenegro, its most popular politician of all time, and then in a few months he fell headlong and lost that primacy forever. Just because he got behind an option with no alternative. "Yugoslavia has no alternative", Bulatović clicked, followed by Peđa, Žika, Milica, over 60 members of the GO united DPS, while only 7, or ten times less, were against! That after a few months this balance of power would be drastically changed in favor of the seemingly irretrievably lost and defeated Đukanović.
Now, after 25 years, history is repeating itself in a way. The talented and charismatic leader of Ura, Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, could turn out to be the loser overnight from the position of master of the situation, and for a similar reason - because he stood behind the Basic Agreement without an alternative. Although almost nothing in the circumstances, pre-history, plot, surrounding these two issues is the same, the way of formulating the political position as fateful, urgent, D-day, and without an alternative, connects these two episodes - even so much so that the aforementioned Hegel's thought could be used to history repeats itself.
The only question is whether in the specific case as a tragedy or as a farce.
Seen from the point of view of Ura and the SNP, the epilogue could be tragic because it is hard to imagine how these two parties, which invested all their credibility and capacity in overthrowing the previous Government and forming a new one, risking like no one before them, could survive the elections. If one goes into such an unfolding of the story, Ura and the SNP could easily remain below the census with an independent performance, although in the last Ipsos measurement, Ura was above 10, and SNP was almost 5 percent.
On the other hand, DPS is a paper tiger. He pretends to be alive. Because when his vice presidents are Eraković and Vuković, then nothing bodes well. This is shown by the tragicomic address to the nation by the charismatic Jew in Roćen's native Russian language. Or the epistle of Saint Ivan Vuković from the bidon or the trench of the Podgorica partisan detachment, where he got diarrhea. And in fact, both of them are already celebrating a new imaginary victory over Chetnik Dritan and other collaborators of the occupier. Even if the lost business of 500 million is returned to them, such projections act as a sledgehammer.
But back to the prime minister. A key question arises with him - what made Abazović enter into another drama? After the Comite lynching in the fall of 2020, the traumatic "betrayal of electoral will" at the end of 2021, the painful birth of the new majority and the Government less than 100 days ago, now again a soap opera with the announcement of the old majority?!
Dritan became a historical figure simply by being the first "black" prime minister of a Balkan country. The first "minority" who became a leading political figure of a state in a barrel of gunpowder. Which is why he was hated by many, from one coast and the other - Montenegrins/Serbs because he is not "of their religion", Albanians/Muslims because he came out of their national/religious ban. And became a civic leader. And in just a few months, he won the sympathy of Montenegro, the region, and even the European Union. These days, the head of EU diplomacy, Josep Borelj, needs to come to his feet, as yesterday, from all European and allied addresses, only praises came for the young prime minister and the certain EU path that stands before him and the country he leads.
And then - Basic contract without alternative. And the film returned to the past. Europeans were taken aback, coalition partners quarreled, party comrades confused, the public knocked out. Not so much because of the content of TU as because of the way in which the question was put on the table. According to the system of completed act and overvoting within some closed working group.
Why?!
I see only two possible answers. Or reasons.
First: Dritan may have succeeded in subduing the region and the EU, but he failed to conquer himself. And that is the most difficult task. When he had to receive a blow below the belt from DPS, SDP, Democrats, and even DF, he did it in his own name and in the name of Ura, in the name of minorities, citizens, and Europe. When his friends from the Belvedere, the voters and fans of Milo, Raško and Šehović, cursed his Muslim mother or, at best, a Chetnik mother, Abazović considered that it was his personal problem that he should bear and solve himself. While the majority of propaganda mercenaries and the media, headed by mullah Andrej (the holder of another DPS state award for a book of hate speech), encouraged and fueled the public lynching of Ulcinjanin Abazović, and the majority of NGOs and free intellectuals remained silent on all this, Dritan did not give up his mission to reconcile and change Montenegro and its neighbors.
He refused to accept the fact that it was not a one-man job. And that blows and subterfuges, as well as obligations and duties, should be shared. With the team in the party, with colleagues in the Government, with responsible and well-intentioned public employees and institutions.
Jevrem Brković told me a long time ago that among unrealized artists there are the most - the greatest talents. Will it be the case of Dritan Abazović, political artist? It is a story about a man of rare political courage and passion who could go to the sidelines too soon because he does not understand that in every business, even in politics, a successful leader and winner becomes the one who knows how to choose the best team - those who know. And let the one who thinks the opposite perish - that he doesn't need a team because he knows everything best.
Learning to manage your emotions, but also the system - that is the biggest secret of success in any profession. If until the famous "TU bez alternative" Dritan showed an enviable level of managing emotions, he never managed with organization. You can even say - he never had it. Because he thought it was all up to him. And to receive a shot and to score a goal.
Another possible reason is - lord Vučić? Was he mesmerized by the style and performance of the President of Serbia, Prime Minister Abazović himself tried to implement a similar system in Montenegro, not caring much about the fact that AV has an army and cannons behind him, and he, YES, a company and pigeons?! All these years, Dritan watched Vučić turn from Milo's best political student and son into a "father killer" and master of the region, so perhaps, in his boyhood dreams, the idea was born that he would be Tito - after Vučić. Someone who will not only bring Montenegro into the EU, and keep alive the idea of joining for all the countries of the region, but also someone who will reconcile Serbs and Albanians, restore brotherhood and unity, but now on European and not on ideological values?! And with that, he wrote his name in the history books of the entire Balkans. If there were such dreams, the reality is something completely different.
It seems as if on the first step and at the first touch the AV baked YES. First, he pacified the DF, which was one of the key preconditions for an easy and relaxed assumption of the prime minister's position, then he silenced his propaganda tricks and minimized the story of the betrayal of the popular will, then AV provided him with a close meeting with the patriarch one cold Belgrade winter, and in the end opened the door of Open Balkans wide for him. Dritan forgot about Virgil's famous sentence: beware of the Danaans even when they bring you gifts! For all that AV delivered DA on his way to the stars turned out to be only one requirement - TU with no alternative. Knowing that it would seriously injure him, if not kill him. It's Vucic. He doesn't forgive anyone and never gives up. Spending associates and partners like Elon Mask money - with passion and enjoyment. Here let Milo confirm.
But, maybe DA has an ace up his sleeve?! Maybe he can, like Djokovic, go from 0:2 to 3:2. Maybe he knows something that no one else does. Maybe he has some magic wand, like Milo in the time of sanctions and smuggling. That's how Momir described him then. Wizard from Rastok.
And maybe my fears about brother Dritan are justified. It may turn out that Abazović got too close to the top of the pyramid. Or that he paid the guild with improvisations and soloing. And politics is serious business. Sorry, Slavko, but business is business. It was a graffiti from the time of the Liberals that had a different meaning - an attempt by some LSCG fan to copy Perović's soloing at the time and one man show, which led him to political bankruptcy, he justified to the corrupt Montenegrins who betrayed Slavko for pennies and gold coins and went over to Milo. Which, of course, happened, but that does not diminish Perović's responsibility.
There. History may repeat itself in that way. Dritan can also rise from this situation, like Milo mentioned in 1997 after the first round of presidential elections, when Roćen was crying in despair and lost, and Ranko in the SDP went for bureks. And can it be extinguished like Slavko, and leave a legend of why it had to be like that?
Dritan himself admits that as a child he liked to watch Formula 1 races. I'm sure movies too. One from that time was called Last lap in Monza.
Bonus video:
