Another local election will be held in Budva in seventeen days. The third in the last two years. At first glance - constantly some problems in this city. The turbulent political situation cannot be calmed down and the citizens can rest from political fights...
Why is Budva so important that state politics is broken over its back?
Budva's city budget for 2024 amounts to 59,5 million euros, and after Podgorica it is the largest in the country and by far the largest per capita. Budva fills the state budget with revenues from tourism over 500 million every year! The economic interests are enormous, and this city is precisely because of that tempting as political prey. Political interest is actually a kind of shell for the financial one. Those who managed this city for more than 20 years and left behind affairs and debts know this best.
So far, over 54 million in debt has been repaid, and the local administration managed to win the arbitration procedure and save an additional 41,4 million euros of citizens' money. Public finances have been consolidated to the extent that today the municipality has 17 million euros in its account!
The municipality of Budva is financially strong, promising and sustainable. The big question is whether the political parties would fight so hard to win power if the municipality was in charge and if, as was the case a few years ago, the employees did not receive salaries for eight months and the municipality was doing business with cessions and assignments, and instead of salaries they received food vouchers... It was not so long ago that the Municipality of Budva was in debt reprogramming for taxes and employee contributions and that it also owed the basic wages that the families of the employees lived on.
The chaos that remained for years due to the mismanagement of this city was stopped by household management. No one can deny the facts. But politicians and malicious media are very happy to twist them to their advantage.
On this day, the citizens of Budva are faced with the question - why should they go to the polls and who can they trust to be the right choice to exercise power in this city? All political entities participating in the upcoming elections in Budva were or are the authorities, some at the local level and some at the state level. The basic question that needs to be thought about is therefore: what has everyone who is fighting for power in the upcoming elections done or is doing for Budva.
Who to believe: facts or sweet promises!? For many who said that Budva was in their hearts, it turned out that Budva was in their pockets, so it only served as a springboard for positions at the state level. As they sat in the state chairs and started managing state institutions and companies, they became centralists from local patriots. Returning resources to the municipality and responsibilities under the decentralization system have become foreign in their vocabulary. But for some reason they are trying to win the local government as well, presenting themselves as candidates for the mayor of the municipality while they are properly guarding their reserve positions in state functions. Because, if they fail to "conquer" the municipality, they will return to their old positions of comfort and privilege.
If we take a closer look, there are few real candidates for these positions because most of them answer to party headquarters and party bosses in Podgorica who will always dictate what and how things will be done in Budva. The stepmotherly relationship of the central authorities both before and after 2020 remained the same. Authorities changed at the state level, but the attitude towards Budva remained the same. The annual amount of capital investments from the state budget for our municipality is, as a rule, zero euros, although annual income is 500 million only through tourism and so much through the VAT system that the Government of Montenegro has never published official data.
Budva has never had a city hospital with a maternity ward, and that issue was not raised even by those from Budva who held the most important state positions, and we see that they are not raised by those who are today. The solution to that issue was initiated by the current administration of the Municipality of Budva, and was met with a wall of silence and ignorance. These days we hear that "it's a shame that Budva doesn't have a hospital", but we don't hear an answer as to who is to blame for that! Those from before or these today at the state level. The answer is: equally both. Because of all this, Budva and the people of Budva should not agree to an inferior relationship served by the central government, because today's managers of state policies, the former opposition, have taken over the DPS matrix regarding Budva.
You can take from Budva and give nothing to it. That's why Budva must no longer rely on and trust those who see it as political prey.
After the elections held on May 26, Budva did not deserve to become a hostage of the political games surrounding the reconstruction of the Government and to be less important than the distribution of 27 ministerial and vice-presidential positions and the division by depth and breadth. Budva no longer has time to wait and experiment.
It does not deserve to be managed by those who do not understand that Budva is not only a tourist destination and an economic resource, but that Budva cares for every person who shares this most beautiful piece of heaven, regardless of where he was born or where he came to this city.
(Budva is our city)
