Friday, February 17 - This is how honest, responsible and serious politicians do it. Not waiting for what started upside down to continue upside down.
- Unfortunately, neither Spajić nor we as a party have shown the necessary amount of responsibility to adequately manage the situation - Jakov Milatović was honest at the beginning of his address to the public.
And, unfortunately, too late!
He should have done it after the first attempt by the first leader of the Europe Now Movement to mislead the public. Even a year and a half ago, when at the persistent insistence of Strahinja Bulajić, he was categorical:
- No, I don't have Serbian citizenship - Milojko Spajić said for the first time in his capacity as a minister.
Then only in front of those who knew that he had two passports since 2019.
Now in front of all the citizens of Montenegro, whom he wanted to be - President.
- To relativize all this is wrong behavior, which is not in accordance with the values we promote. The only right thing is to apologize to the citizens - Milatović showed a responsibility unusual in Montenegrin democratic practice on Twitter.
Before him, only LSCG leader Slavko Perović did something similar. True on another occasion, taking full responsibility for the 1998 election defeat.
- We must learn from the mistake and continue to work for a better, richer and fairer Montenegro - Milatović confirmed what few serious analysts of the work of the former government knew even two years ago, that he is a much more serious politician than Spajić.
He, of course, has the right to believe that "The Europe Now Movement, like Mr. Spajić, with all our flaws, but also virtues, is the best offer on the political scene."
There is every chance that he is not (anymore), and how right he is will be measured by the voters in the presidential elections. To which Jakov Milatović, unfortunately, appears as a reserve candidate.
By agreeing to run in the midst of an unprecedented uproar caused by his and his party boss, he is indeed bravely risking his own political future.
However, something drastically more important is also at risk. That Montenegro will be forced to choose between - conditionally speaking - two evils for the fourth time. That is, unconditionally, between two bad policies - Milo Đukanović and Andrija Mandić...
So that both Europe and its reserve candidate change their mind and support the Democrat candidate Aleksa Bečić - there is time until Sunday.
* * *
Saturday, February 18 - The State Election Commission has officially confirmed that Milojko Spajić cannot be a candidate for President.
For what reason, I did not manage to understand from any TV report. What about the confusion that, to put it mildly, strange statements led Spajić himself to, what about the reporters, most of whom were not able to distinguish whether the issue was dual citizenship, dual residence or - dual statements of candidates for candidacy...
What is - yes, he avoided the truth for an extended period of time, but none of the three dualities is within the jurisdiction of the SEC.
About whose it is, a dozen lawyers announced as many interpretations on Facebook.
It is not appropriate for me to meddle in their profession.
Let me tell them who I suspect as a layman is:
- Eh, darling, my comrade Milo, I'm turning in my grave in agony... As neither Koba nor I thought of forming DIK... Your Lavrentij Pavlovich Beria...
* * *
Sunday, February 19 - What was the point of this grim journalism, I grumbled while scrolling through the portals a day later, is it realistic to come to a session like this without preparation...
Well, I am strict but not unrealistic, there is no longer an interview with the writer until after the book has been read, as was done in my pen...
It's been almost forty years, but I still remember how three days and nights before the promotion of Dimitrije Vujović's "Federalists of Montenegro" I studied almost 500 pages in large format... And collapsed in the middle of the large CANU hall from exhaustion...
In order to clear up the insolence of the SEC, such dedication was not necessary, it was only necessary to run through the Constitution and the laws on Montenegrin citizenship and residence...
Or at least in reports, don't make grandmothers and frogs out of them...
* * *
Monday, February 20 - The weekend passed, SEC and lawyers and politicians and analysts lined up, it seems that only I don't understand why Spajić was deprived of the right to run for office.
Did the man, according to the law, submit papers on voting rights, residence and citizenship?
It is!
So what's the problem?
In that he has the right to these papers in another country.
Correct, but where does it say that a candidate for President must not have them?
Tens of thousands of Montenegrin voters also have them. And none of them are deprived of the right to vote because of that, but he is to be elected...
Andrija Mandić did not.
There is no proof that he is a citizen of Serbia?
There is, just like for Spajić - a statement. It's just that Mandić made his declaration of Serbian citizenship 12 years earlier.
- I need to say that, to repeat that I was one of the first to take that citizenship. Thousands of citizens of Montenegro have it. I want to call on every citizen of Montenegro who has taken the citizenship of Serbia, and this is a large number, not to make the relationship that exists between us and the state of Serbia public, nor to forward these documents to anyone, not even to the Ministry of Internal Affairs - she announced. is Free Europe on March 28, 2011.
Thanks to the vote of representatives of DPS, DF, SNP, BS and SD, the SEC chose to decide on the same matter differently...
I hope that the same opposition and restraint will not be repeated regarding the candidacy of Aleksa Bečić.
Otherwise, for the first time since the first vote in 1990, I will have to boycott the elections...
* * *
Tuesday, February 21 - Andrija Mandić is also boycotting his past work these days.
Unfortunately, only as a candidate... As the leader of the DF, he too often reverts to factory settings...
- I will do everything to reconcile... to stop doing things that bring discord - Mandic-candidate promises in the campaign video.
And then the Mandić-leader put all his might into putting pressure on the voters of Europe now. So much so that getting him down to the polls is an impossible mission.
- The candidacy of Milojko Spajić was not rejected because of the existence of the DF-DPS axis, but because he lied to the citizens - the candidate returned to leadership settings.
And continued to deceive the citizens, like Spajić but not in the same way.
Lying is deceiving by doing, and keeping important information silent is deceiving by not doing, Andrija Mandić is obliged to know both as a candidate and as a leader.
And to finally answer the question of whether he acquired Serbian citizenship legally, before 2007.
The answer to that question is yes or no. Everything else is the aforementioned deception by doing nothing, including the answer that "I would never make anything up".
Despite everything, it is nice these days to follow the radical turn of candidate Mandić.
- I'm not proud of some of the things I said, some I even regret. Our divisions in which I participated lie on my soul...
As long as he doesn't overdo those twists and turns until the final rally on March 17...
As he started, it could happen that at the end of the speech we hear from Andrija Mandić:
- Montenegro will exist while Lovćena is above us, while the sea is under Bar and Kotor, while there is Sunca and while there is Grahovca...
Bonus video:
