Pensioners protesting in the town square in Bijelo Polje said that if the minimum pension is not increased to 80 percent of the average minimum wage in Montenegro, which would amount to 560 euros, they will continue their protests in front of the Government and the Parliament.
Video: Jadranka Ćetković
The minimum pension in Montenegro, which was 450 euros for two years, was increased by 1,74 euros through adjustment at the beginning of the year. The minimum wage for employees with a high school diploma is 600 euros, while for employees with a university degree, the minimum wage is 800 euros.
Video: Jadranka Ćetković
The President of the Pensioners' Movement, Svetozar Čabarkapa, on behalf of the organizers, said that they are demanding that the minimum pension be 80 percent of the average lowest wage in the country, and that the others be increased proportionally.
Video: Jadranka Ćetković
One of the demands is that pensions be adjusted four times a year in the future.
They also demand that the Ministry of Social Welfare urgently prepare social cards for all pensioners, and that the Parliament vote on a special pension supplement to provide pensioners with heating before the winter season.
Video: Jadranka Ćetković
Pensioners are also demanding that the Government expand the list of free medicines for pensioners; as well as depoliticize the Board of Directors of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, and appoint a new Board of Directors consisting of three pensioner representatives, three members from the competent Ministry, and the Fund's director.
Video: Jadranka Ćetković
"We must fight to stop them oppressing us"
Čabarkapa said that this is a country that pensioners built, and that they were brought to the brink of poverty.
Criticizing decades-old policies towards the oldest population, he called for unity in the fight against injustice and humiliating economic status.
Čabarkapa pointed out that the process that began with the so-called "AB revolution" of the last century, driven by wrong decisions and "plundering privatization", is directly responsible for the current situation in which workers have been left without rights and pensioners without dignity.
"The statistics are devastating, according to which around 63.000 pensioners in Montenegro receive only 450 euros, which is insufficient to cover basic living expenses, bills and necessary medical treatments. As a result of unsympathetic policies, we have pensioners who have been literally thrown out onto the streets without any rights, with symbolic severance pay, and today live on minimal incomes. United, we must fight to stop oppressing us and seeing us as second-, third- or tenth-class citizens," he said, adding that the current rulers have privatized what generations have painstakingly built, while judicial institutions have remained silent about the "plunder" of workers' property.
Čabarkapa warned that decades of bad policies have led to the demographic collapse of the north and the unacceptable position of pensioners.
"While politicians fought for seats in Podgorica, Bijelo Polje has lost almost 19.000 residents since 1981. Today we have a disappearing city and a society in which tycoons have become rich at the expense of workers' property, while pensioners are barely making ends meet," says Čabarkapa.
He points out that pensioners are not looking for politics, but a dignified life from their earned pensions.
"An increase to 450 euros is not enough. We can no longer and will not go hungry," he said.
If the government turns a deaf ear to their demands, the pensioners have announced that they will "block the entire Montenegro" in a month and organize mass protests in front of the Government and the Parliament in Podgorica, because they are existentially threatened, which is why, as they say, there is no more waiting.
"Pensioners must not be a secondary topic"
Milan Vukčević from Podgorica pointed out that pensioners should not be a secondary topic.
"We see what certain people who consider themselves powerful have done. They increased our pension by 0,38 percent and caused concern, and that is a kind of stress test. I think that our activities like this and connecting in all municipalities will contribute to the fact that those who made that decision are stressed. We must make an effort to ensure that pensioners are not a secondary topic like they have been so far. We must include all municipalities in the Movement of Pensioners of Montenegro and continue with these activities," said Vukčević.
Sadik Klimenta said that pensioners have been forgotten by institutions in Montenegro in the last few years.
"There is no housing construction, no one-time aid. Until last year, there was free use of vacations in Ulcinj, and that was abolished. And the winter food they give is only for the meat industry, not for us. We are persistently asking that they give us interest-free loans for winter food, so that we can choose for ourselves what we need for winter food, and not have others determine for us," said Klimenta.
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