Friday, December 30 - Does anyone remember the motivational slogan that marked the turbulent sixties in Yugoslavia and the rest of the advanced world eager for change... "Let's be realistic, we're looking for the impossible", that's how it read.
Well, these days I was reminded of that by the unprovoked desire of the two ruling coalitions to form a third government just two years after the election victory.
But the translation of Che Guevara's slogan for this occasion should read - "Let's be persistent, we're looking for the Government we don't want to get"...
How did I get there? Simply, translating announcements and statements from party language to the language of logic.
As the main motive for the formation of the third government, all parties cite respect for the electoral will of August 20, 2020. At the same time, none of them succeeds - the majority does not even try - to get off the most effective opiate of the DPS: what is it like to enter the executive power ( only) sharing of power, as a kind of reward for victory over the opponent.
Of course not, and voters seem to understand that better than party leaders. Respecting the electoral will only means assuming part of the heavy obligations, for the fulfillment of which the only reward will be the next election result.
Since it is a long-term process and not a one-time radical turn, I do not believe that the third government will be formed at all.
Judging by experience, it is more likely that until the end of the negotiations, its advocates will only devise tactics to avoid public condemnation.
Let's not lie anymore, the path they took did not even lead to the election of the Government, it was a classic pre-election campaign.
I don't know who will be the first to give up publicly, but it is not realistic that DF will suddenly turn into a good Euro-Atlantic student. And he admits that he has to give up on the Government because Razredna from Washington and the Teachers' Council from Brussels are threatening him with expulsion from school, without the right to re-enroll before the end of the decade.
It is even less realistic for the Democrats to publicly give up. Not only because Miodrag Lekić is the leader of Demos, who is their coalition partner, but much more because of the doubling - for them anyway too long - of the so-called technical mandate of Dritan Abazović. It is not easy to explain to the membership how it is that a bitter opponent has become stronger after being replaced.
What if Ura breaks? Well, then the repetition of the series of accusations of treason, 21 million, tobacco smuggling, connections with the mafia and taking over the leadership of yet another clan is not lost on her.
The most realistic, therefore, seems to be the resignation of the mandate holder. Miodrag Lekić himself announced it - either the formation will be serious or there will be no Government. Nothing strange, he is a serious, experienced and responsible politician.
It was surprising why he even accepted the offer to be a government representative, which was doomed in advance...
As a possible reason for giving up, Lekić has already mentioned a possible repetition of the party's conditioning of cadres. They will be more likely to announce sooner, I hope, when and if the withdrawal becomes certain.
First, that the formation of the Government of a NATO member and the first candidate for EU membership, despite the strong opposition of Washington and Brussels, no one - except for China, Russia and Serbia - would see it as "restoring Montenegro's dignity" but as - a show of spite .
The second and most important realistic reason for giving up is of domestic origin.
The formation of the Government without national minority parties, even with their already announced strong opposition, would be a finger in the eye of Montenegro.
And not because of the image of multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multicultural harmony that has long existed in the world about Montenegro.
But because Montenegro cannot exist without minority peoples, religions and cultures...
* * *
Saturday, December 31 - The new year is starting, I welcomed it with Feđa Štukan.
Around midnight, at thirty something, I was a little amazed. Can a warrior write about war so nonchalantly...
And then I remembered the real question - are hundreds of thousands of people being sent to their deaths so nonchalantly...
I found part of the answer at the end, in Štukan's letter to his daughter Aja:
"Don't go my way. When war is on the run, saving life is zero priority, nothing is more important than that. Don't listen to anyone who says otherwise. There is only one life.
The state and the nation are the construct of a very territorial species of monkeys, and are nothing more than a synonym for a larger pack led by a small group of monkeys, ready to do literally anything for money.
A flag is a piece of cloth, anthems are a collection of tones and words, don't attach any deeper meaning to them. Behind everything are the rich who exploit the poor.
Patriotism is for the limited. The whole world is yours, you have a right to it, explore it. There is no better use of time than traveling. Surround yourself with people who value life.
Religion is a cult of death, the most morbid thing man has invented, it exists only for money. Those who lead it know nothing about life, let alone death. Death is nothing, death does not hurt. Enjoy it is the meaning..."
* * *
Sunday, January 1/Monday, January 2 - The broadcast of the New Year's concert in Vienna on Croatian television was also enjoyable. Yes, it's not very patriotic, but their music editors really try to make sure that the voice from the studio doesn't just serve to confuse the audience between polka and waltz...
The hosts also made an effort to hear something new - none of the compositions, except for the last one, have been performed at the New Year's concert, which is as old as I am.
Not to dwell on the least known Strauss, Jozef, I have been boring lovers of food songs about water from Vidrovan and wine from Crmnica for years with the story of the Vienna Philharmonic.
This is not about him or her, nor about the efforts of Austria and other normal countries so that musical and other creators are not forgotten even after 150 years.
We are talking about Montenegro, which has been shedding crocodile tears over Montenegrin patriotism for a decade and a half, after consigning all its already few composers and performers of classical music to oblivion.
And that was little, so for years he has been closing city squares to local musicians of simpler genres, considering them unworthy even of street New Year's parties.
Well, it is humane that Budva confirmed its multi-ethnicity under the administration of DF...
Dino Merlin, Djiboni, Konstructa, Senidah, Sara Jo - such a degree of brotherhood and unity has not been achieved in the capital of tourism since Broz's death...
It is not bad that the Budva example was followed by the rest of the littoral, with Zdravko Čolić, Indira ex Kolonia, Leontina...
But it was, and it was very bad, because only closed spaces were open for local soloists and groups.
I have no idea if there is a basis for any constitutional appeal, and it is not possible to decide on it. But the political and cultural elite, instead of calling for constitutional patriotism, could at least call for musical patriotism for the holidays.
Not because of patriotic messages for internal use, we also have them for export.
But because of the export of what we lack, huge amounts of money flowing into neighboring countries...
* * *
Tuesday, January 3 - Alarming situation in Pljevlja, say the media. Unbearable, say the people of Pljevlja. Usual and expected, I would say.
I wrote about air pollution in that city for the first time exactly 35 years ago. One of the first Montenegrin environmental activists, the late Cane Janićijević, began to report to me voluntarily and in detail almost every week.
Certainly, the air was cleaner than today. Residents were mostly silent and believed the promises that the Thermal Power Plant would get some kind of saving "filters".
Janićijević regularly harassed the municipality and the state with letters, I also inquired about the purification of gases from both the thermal power plant and the heating boilers, but both of us received plans instead of facts.
In some of them, even then, the heating of the city was mentioned, but it, like all other partial solutions, was forgotten even before the war...
No one was allowed to mention the only complete ecological solution - shutting down the Thermal Power Plant already in the first decade of operation. Because that would threaten the foundations of not only the economic but also the political system.
That ecological black spot was getting blacker and - out of the three most dangerous in Montenegro - the only one that has remained an unsolvable problem to this day.
Even the pollution from the Aluminum Plant would never have been stopped if nine tenths of that giant had not disappeared. True, not from environmental reasons, but from the profit motive of the war and post-war democratic government.
The tailings pond in Mojkovac stopped threatening the city thanks to some kind of rehabilitation...
For Pljevlja, there is no permanent solution until the European Union, after the end of the war in Ukraine and the remediation of its consequences on its territory, returns to factory environmental settings.
Even its experts do not dare to estimate whether it will be in a decade or two. Until that permanent solution is reached, it would be humane - and not only because of the situation in Pljevlje - for these locals to seriously consider all temporary and partial solutions.
It is not human to underestimate any of them, not even today's about the departure of Pljevljak to the neighboring municipality for a breather or yesterday's about the tunneling towards Prijepolje.
The idea of air purifiers at state expense, lower electricity prices, and giving up coal-fired heating with the help of the state and the municipality is also useful. I guess the experts will decide on that, it's up to the politicians to - provide the money.
I'm not good at further recommendations, but I recommend both to read two columns in Vijesti from July of last year - "Hydrogen against PM particles" and "Pljevlja residents don't need elaborates, but clean air"...
* * *
Wednesday, January 4 - Nothing from the new government, we will have to hold elections again.
Of which there will also be nothing, if the Constitutional Court is not elected before them and the electoral legislation is amended.
Which is not possible, because the other key laws are worded in such a way that there is simply no constitutional and legal restraint of the President and the Party!
Bonus video:
