Even Bešić, who may have a commercial interest in believing in the tables and fractions of Alekse Bečić, was uncomfortable on Sunday evening, listening to the cheerful leader of the Democrats explaining to the public how their list fared best in the Podgorica elections. Even better than the forecasts of Bešić himself, who held them up to 28 percent of support! And if you ask Prime Minister Spajić, 21 is significantly higher than 28! Because when Mickey can sell us a 1.700-euro square-foot apartment in the future city of Velje brdo for a thousand, then it's a small, not a big, problem for him to fill Bečić's calculation with a glass of champagne. The one from Saint Tropez, from seven euros.
So, although all the participants in the election declared victory, the biggest winners are, in fact, the citizens themselves. Both those who voted and those who stayed at home in record numbers.
Here's why.
First, what are the messages of those who voted? There are two main ones - that Podgorica and Montenegro should develop as civil and secular environments. Because the voters convincingly, almost two-thirds, voted for the parties that promoted the concept of a multi-religious and open Podgorica in the campaign. The opposite, the clero-national bloc, remained below 40 percent, if we take into account that at least 2-3 percent of the Spajić and Bečić voters, if not all five, are not supporters of the policy figuratively carried by Marko Parezanović and Joanikije Mićović. In addition, the failure of Ibrahimović, who is part of that ethnic majority, additionally confirms this thesis - the local Bosniaks have shown that they are for Podgorica of all its people, and not the city of Serbs and Bosniaks.
On the other hand, it is important to "read" the message of the abstainers. Again, the champions of the party corporations (thanks to Perić for the effective metaphor) tried to blind the eyes of the citizens, explaining on election night that the low turnout was the result of material fatigue. Like, too many choices in the last two years, they say. And they lie, again. The essence is quite different. First, the record abstention showed that the voters of the winner from August 2020 abstained on record. What then means that a significant percentage of anti-DPS voters stayed home, disappointed with what the "liberators" showed in the previous four years. Especially in this last one. In short, it looked like this.
Spajić expressed his great will and desire to buy and cover everything, from MPs and councilors, through NGOs and independent institutions, to the media, without choosing the means. And after Milo - Miki. Already seen, then.
Mandić embarked on an impossible mission - to convince us that the August majority was created on the foundations of the Serbian world, not the European one. That the corrupt and criminalized DPS was overthrown in 2020 by the BIA, that is, the SPC, and not by free citizens eager for democracy and justice. And that has already been seen. I mean the manipulation of citizens' patriotic feelings.
Bečić and his colleagues have shown that it is possible to surpass the famous, decade-long DPS partitocracy. Even stronger! So, that has already been seen. In addition, after almost a decade of believing in their civic character and work, the Democrats convinced me that I was naive. And I whitewashed in vain. The church is their home and comfort.
In the end, Milatović - he easily left the party and the government to the immature Spajić, only to be faced with a difficult choice - to stay out of the election race and "die", reducing himself to Filip Vujanović, an unwilling accomplice in the tragedy, or to take a risk and leave beginning, from the meadow, as he said. Without his inclusion in the elections, the Government's ethnic bloc would easily have taken the majority, so the DPS would have boasted for nothing about winning 31 percent or a little more. If Milatović wants, between two blocs, one clerical-national and the other, still burdened by decades of corruption and crime, to raise a third pillar, civil and justice-loving, they will have to show more patience. And talent for bringing together different subjects and individuals.
DPS has reason to celebrate only because it stopped the trend of attrition, and not because the citizens of Podgorica sent a message - Milo is back. If the winners of August 2020 made a cardinal mistake and thought that the voters were for Murta, after decades of Kurta, now Živković and Abdić would similarly "fall" if they interpreted the election result as a signal for the return of Podgorica and Montenegro to factory settings. No more captive institutions, no more bought media and intellectuals, no more nepotism and rigged tenders, no more criminal clans and "transit" jobs... Whether the current leadership of the DPS, from Đukanović's shadow, sees this reality and facts is hard to fathom. Sometimes it seems that it would be much easier for them to completely opt for the rule of law, strong institutions and independent media if they didn't have daddy Milo at their necks. And it's as if they are begging God for someone to take care of him, either Rute (NATO) or Novović (SDT). Because Živković and his comrades don't have the strength for that.
In the end, the question remains - how will Spajić, after a bad result, preserve the parliamentary majority, that is, the Government!? Bešić's commercial spin that Milatović and Abazović must not mention the fall of the government because then they would have to accept the fall of the president as well, helps Spajić as much as Bečić's broad smile and electoral calculation. That is why the picture of Spajić, with a worried face, leaning against the wall, in the last row of the "celebrants", said that he is aware of the difficult situation. His statement that the result of 21 percent was achieved despite the fact that the ES2 program has not yet come to life, causes a counterthesis - whether a much bigger problem for Spajić and his comrades occurs just when that controversial program comes to life, and when, perhaps, it starts to lead to the dismissal of employees, of a new wave of inflation, pension freezes, salary cuts... Or when it turns out that the shovel for the highway has not already been put in next year, and the first apartments on Velje brdo have not been occupied in 2026. If that dark scenario were to happen, in the next elections, Spajić and Bečić would be far from the census, and not from this 20-something percent of support.
But, even before those visible results or consequences of the Prime Minister's "fiscalization" of the state, he will have a big problem to preserve the Government and the majority. Because Đjeljošaj is already out with one foot, and Ibrahimović, if he stays in the government, risks losing his rating in all subsequent elections. Without representatives of minority parties, the current ethnic government becomes almost exclusively Serbian - and hardly sustainable. Spajić's flirtation with the clergy and official Belgrade, with the former directly, with the latter indirectly, collapsed the proclaimed civil and European character of the cabinet, especially after its reconstruction. The Podgorica elections more than clearly demonstrated this. And that is their most important message.
Bonus video:
