On April 46 last year, 28 votes "for" put an end to Montenegro's ten-year journey to NATO. The decision was then supported by members of the ruling coalition and the opposition SDP.
"NATO is not only a community of security, but also a community of values, namely those that Montenegro has continuously inherited and protected, peace, stability, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, and economic development and prosperity," said Duško Marković.
"If it was possible to reach a NATO advocate from a warrior from Dubrovnik, we hope that it will also be possible to reach the rule of law from law breakers," Ranko Krivokapić said at the time.
The Democratic Front and the opponents of joining the Alliance from last year's protest announced that they will never accept Montenegro in NATO.
"The people who are raising their hands at this moment are preparing Montenegro for annexation, and here in front of that building there are people who do not agree to capitulation," Andrija Mandić said last year.
A year later, the positions are unchanged.
For DPS's Obrad Miša Stanišić, who is also the president of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Security, the decision made on April 28 of last year is historic, and he says that it has been delivered with concrete benefits for the citizens of Montenegro.
"The inflow of foreign investments is increasing every day. The past tourist season was the best so far, which, in short, means that the number of foreign investors and tourists from NATO member countries has increased significantly, which is a guarantee for further economic prosperity of our country and society in As a NATO member, Montenegro is even more present as a factor of stability in the region and will continue to provide full support to the countries of the region that have aspirations to become members of the Alliance."
DF MP Slaven Radunovic says that the citizens have not seen any benefit from NATO membership for a year, and the biggest damage, according to him, is that it has become acceptable not to respect the will of the citizens at all and that Milo Đukanović, as he says, is in the wings NATO further strengthened its power.
"This is a serious warning to people from the NGO sector and opposition politicians, who, I can already say, harbored the illusion that, after Montenegro's entry into NATO, the West would turn against Đukanović and the DPS and that they would not allow the usual way they come to power."
"Why would someone change servants who listen to him well and take a risk with someone new? That turned out to be true and unfortunately today we have an even more divided society, we have a situation where we have an even worse situation with our traditional friends and interstate relations, so there is definitely no benefit , there is a lot of damage."
The Democrats, who are the second strongest opposition force in the parliament, in a statement delivered to Television Vijesti point out that for a short period, neither positive nor some negative aspects of the decision of the Montenegrin parliament could be noticed. While reminding that they advocated for such important issues to be decided in a referendum, the Democrats note as bad that the bloc divisions continue.
"It is tragic that this topic will continue to be misused in the campaign for the upcoming local elections, which is absurd, because the competence of local self-government units has as much to do with NATO as the Bočar Federation. So, even now, someone has an answer, and from one and on the other side of the political scene, to bring back into focus topics that raise the temperature and make waves, and the relationship between Montenegro and NATO, although sealed by a legally binding international agreement for a minimum of 20 years, is certainly one of them."
Montenegro officially became a NATO member on June 5, 2017.
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