By participating in discussions on identity issues, the opposition indirectly helps the authorities in diverting the public's attention from social and economic issues in the country. While the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and part of the opposition have been using national themes for years to raise their ratings, the so-called civil opposition fails to draw citizens' attention to numerous socio-economic problems. That is why affairs and controversial legal solutions still remain in the shadow of national issues.
The Executive Director of the Center for Political Education, Dragiša Janjušević, points out that the imposition of identity issues is a recipe that the government has often used in the past three decades. He reminds that national themes were used in every moment of crisis, but also that the opposition accepted them.
"The fact that the opposition accepts these topics, and initiates some of them itself, speaks of the fact that both the government and the part of the opposition that initiates these topics want to preserve their positions and the social status quo. Which is to say without quality solutions in economic dilemmas, social issues, as well as issues of solving unemployment, problems in education, healthcare, state and local administration. Simply maintaining the situation with two constants - eternal government and eternal opposition," Janjušević pointed out and warned that the ruling coalition will always use the opportunity to play the national card, in order to divert the public's attention from specific problems.
"These are current topics that will last as long as this government. Especially when they have an ideal moment for warming up, such as the celebration of the century from the Podgorica Assembly", he claims.
The announcement of the celebration of the centenary of the unification of Montenegro and Serbia, which is organized by the Democratic Front (DF) and the Serbian National Council (SNS), triggered national polemics that were further intensified by the Government's announcement that it would fine citizens who do not stand for the national anthem. This was followed by a letter from the organizations of the Bosniak diaspora, which demanded that "Mountain Wreath" by Petr Petrović Njegoš and "Peščanik" by Danilo Kiš be banned in schools, while the Bosniak Party (BS) raised the issue of changing state symbols.
The parties got into a controversy over the churches in Rumija and Svač, while the DF proposed changes to the law that would celebrate the day of Njegoš's birth as a national holiday. At the same time, the Government declared secret most of the data on the construction of the highway, and due to the state's "work of the century" a part of the bed of the Tara River was moved. The opposition almost silently followed the news about the construction of hydroelectric power plants on Cijevna and Plav, while the discussion about leasing the Airport of Montenegro went to the background.
Ivan Vujović, a member of the presidency of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), warns that DPS is updating national issues because it does not have an answer to the issues of the development of Montenegrin society.
"That's why we keep going round and round, and that's why a parallel reality is created in which citizens live every day, and instead of real problems, we deal with the recycling of finished topics. That's why today's political and social scene inevitably reminds us of the nineties or the pre-referendum time, and that's an unhappy diagnosis of our political reality," Vujović says.
Although the Democratic Front themselves insist on national debates, the representative of that political alliance, Milun Zogović, believes that these topics are imposed by the regime and part of the opposition with theses about the defense of the state against non-existent enemies. He warns that it is "a cover to cover up discrimination against Serbs in Montenegro".
"It is true that the regime recognizes and abuses the sensitivity of these topics to arouse antagonisms, but it is equally true that the Serbian people are imperatively required to self-annihilate their identity, in order for the faceless to become an acceptable part of the community. In the environment of increasingly frequent attacks, to be completely honest, it is difficult to rise above those topics and give primacy to a full refrigerator," Zogović pointed out.
Vujović: We could have created a civic alternative
Emphasizing that great responsibility rests on the so-called to the civil opposition, Vujović reminds that the opposition had two great chances to offer a civil alternative.
"Why real life issues are on the back burner should be answered by those from the civil opposition who, with their lack of vision and selfish political approach, significantly contributed to the degradation of political processes. Montenegro had two chances - during 2016 and 2018, when it could articulate a strong civil European alternative as a broad social movement that would be able to direct political flows, instead of, as now, watching from the sidelines the political game with the completed topics. For us in the SDP, it is not a great consolation that we were right, just as it is not a great consolation if someone else realizes that they were mistaken," Vujović believes.
The tone of the opposition brings back the topics of life
Zogović believes that the opposition needs an honest consensus, which would also mean a return to the topics of life.
"Mutual opposition solidarity, underpinned by a sincere fight against the regime, would be penicillin for national issues, and at the same time the best defense against all forms of discrimination. Then the intentions of the regime and the possibility of actually endangering someone would be completely limited, and thus the story of national issues would gain third-rate importance. This would result in the disempowerment of the DPS. That is why the DF called for a minimum of mutual agreement and joint action of the opposition, but others obviously gave priority to the struggle for supremacy in the opposition and thereby fed new antagonisms, the only benefit of which was the DPS", he claims.
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