Normally, I would not waste paper on quoting Matija Bećković without immediate need, but, on this occasion, I have to because we are talking about Montenegro and Kosovo, and there is, as those who get a rash at the mention of him, the poet from Velje Duboko, unavoidable. Kosovo, he says, is the most expensive Serbian word. And he adds that Montenegro "Noah's ark has emerged from the Kosovo flood".
And the topic is well-known these days. The Serbs are preparing for another Kosovo battle, this time in the Avenue de l'Europe, in distant Strasbourg, while the Montenegrins are already occupying the busiers. As things currently stand, however, the Montenegrin Serb apropos of Kosovo has come down to Maja Vukićević, a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. According to her DNP, she will vote against the proposal for Kosovo to become a member of the Council of Europe.
And that would be all for now, if we don't count Dajković, and we won't, from the Montenegrin Serbs on this "very difficult" issue for Serbia, as Aleksandar Vučić characterized it.
Let us remind you that this point is on the agenda of the PSSE session on April 18. The rapporteur for Kosovo's admission to the Council of Europe, Dora Bakoyanis, recommended that Kosovo become a member of the Council of Europe, and after the PSSE votes and adopts the statutory opinion, it is forwarded to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which makes the final decision on the request for membership.
Vukićević is the head of the Montenegrin delegation in the Parliamentary Assembly, which consists of three members, two from the government and one from the opposition, and three deputies. In addition to Vukićević, the members are Vasilije Čarapić (PES) and Boris Mugoša (SD). It is important to know that the delegation does not have to have a single position and that each of these three will declare in accordance with their beliefs.
Mugoša and Čarapić have not yet declared themselves, but it is not difficult to guess whether, in accordance with the European agenda, which camp they will side with.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not advertise either, although some, such as Ura MP Miloš Konatar, who is a deputy member of the Montenegrin delegation to the PSSE, believe that this disagreement shows a "breakdown" in the ruling coalition in Montenegro.
I would not waste space here on the possible consequences for Serbia after the possible admission of Kosovo to the Council of Europe, because that, after all, is the essential problem of another country. But it is also about "two eyes in the head".
What is very interesting, however, is that this column in the announcement shows that Milo Đukanović made the biggest mistake, conditionally speaking, for his position and that of the DPS, by recognizing the statehood of Kosovo. If the government at that time had left the Kosovo issue open, it is almost certain that August 30 would not have happened or, if there had been changes, the opposition at that time, and the current government, would have remained in the Kosovo quagmire in which the Serbian opposition has been churning for 12 years. unsuccessfully trying to replace Aleksandar Vučić.
Or, it is a hypothetical question but, at the same time, deeply grounded in reality - does anyone believe that PES, Ura, Democrats, ZBCG and all others who contributed to the downfall of Đukanović's regime, including the SPC, could come under the same umbrella with a diametrically different attitude towards the Kosovo issue?
Let's just remember October 2008 and the hunger strike of Andrija Mandić, at that time the leader of the Serbian List, because of "one of the biggest betrayals of Montenegro in history", the recognition of Kosovo's independence. After 13 days, Mandić "respected the position of the SNS leadership", as explained by the party's spokesman Dobrilo Dedeić, and gave up the protest.
For Milan Knežević, it is not necessary to go back so far into the past. Back in May of last year, in Belgrade, at the meeting of the Serbian Progressive Party, he thunderously announced that withdrawing the recognition of Kosovo would be the first decision he would sign if he became Montenegrin prime minister.
Knežević, in his own style, said that Montenegro is ruled by foreign ambassadors, but that "there are Serbs, honorable Montenegrins, who will never recognize the false creation of the KLA".
Today, the group portrait of Andrija Mandić in Budapest, at the conference of heads of parliaments of Southeast Europe, with the president of the parliament of the Republic of Kosovo, Gljauk Konjufc, remained from the Kosovo vow of the two leaders. And Milan Knežević's failed attempt to push through a declaration on the recognition of Kosovo in his native Zeta. Of course, there is also a coalition agreement by which ZBCG undertakes to act in accordance with the principles of Montenegro's foreign policy as part of the government. Which implies respect for the recognition of the independence of the Republic of Kosovo.
Such disharmony, to put it mildly, in politics, without any concrete consequences, was actually made possible for both of them by their archenemy Milo Đukanović, and it would be fair, no matter how much it hurts and stings, for them, as well as everyone who makes up the ruling coalition, to admit it.
Of course, it will not come to that, because then all the schizophrenia of the "Serbian world" would be revealed. For the SPC, SANA, Serbs from Serbia and Republika Srpska, at least that's what their political leaders say, the fundamental issue of earthly and heavenly Serbia is, at least in words, the Kosovo covenant, with the cry "Togodine in Prizren". At the same time, the Serbs from Montenegro say that they "will not reconsider the decision on the recognition of Kosovo"?!
So, how is it, Serbian brothers?
Although this question sounds rhetorical, the answer is very simple. We only need to remember that Frau Merkel, in the summer of 2011, at lunch with Boris Tadić, after all the meetings, said that "more creative and innovative solutions must be sought, which was understood as a message to the authorities in Serbia to find the right wording of how, when the time comes, to present independence to the citizens".
It will turn out to be a creative and innovative solution - Aleksandar Vučić.
Despite the media spin, the Americans and the EU are not satisfied with the moves that Vučić is making in the process of creeping recognition of Kosovo. The Biden administration is just not always the happiest about the speed with which Serbia is moving towards the ultimate outcome of solving the Gordian knot of the Western Balkans.
In that fact, in fact, lie all the answers to the question of why and how Vučić has maintained himself in power all these years despite the gaffes and criticisms that come to him from precisely those addresses that are most responsible for his arrival and survival in power all these years.
Both Mandić and Knežević know all this very well, but over time they became aware, as well as their ideological leader Aleksandar Vučić, that if you want to be in power, you have to swallow a frog.
Even if it was Kosovo.
Bonus video:
