The President of Kotor Municipality, Vladimir Jokić, said that he is ready for a check in the local parliament, but that this initiative should be initiated by councilors and not by the mayor.
In an interview with "Vijesti", he also said that he made all decisions in accordance with the law so that public companies could work at full capacity.
"The issue of confidence in the mayor can be put on the agenda by whoever wants to." Let him find 11 signatures of councilors and I will not shy away from coming there. How one will vote in the case of such an initiative is a matter of politics. I am completely ready for that kind of check, but that might also be the moment when everyone would have to publicly state their position - whether they will go with the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) or not. I believe that at the moment the local opposition in Kotor, which consists of the DPS and parties close to them, cannot gather 17 votes and that is the only reason why they do not submit such an initiative", said Jokić and pointed out that in the past two years, Kotor has not led by a "coalition of beliefs, but a coalition of trust".
"Political subjects and personally, the people who make up the coalition headed by me, are ideologically and certainly otherwise very diverse. It is not easy to steer a ship in which you have several forces trying to pull it in different directions. It is a challenge, as is the challenge and all the problems that arise as a result of it. At some point it's a misunderstanding, sometimes it's a deliberate obstruction, but I think we managed to overcome the differences".
In the political public, there are hints that some of the coalition partners in the local government will not support the decisions you made as mayor at the session of the Council of Ministers on Monday. How do you look at it?
The last session of the SO Kotor was interrupted on June 29. You are aware that the main period of the year when this city needs to function smoothly is precisely the interval from June to November. For this reason, in good conscience and in accordance with the law, I took measures to unblock the work of local self-government and local companies. Using Article 59 of the Law on Local Self-Government, I made decisions so that businesses could work at full capacity, without downtime during the summer. Now it is on SO for confirmation to the councilors. I think that all councilor clubs of the ruling coalition would have to support the decisions because none of them were made for personal or party benefit, but in the best interest of the functioning of the local self-government and the coalition. Different stories are running through the political bazaar, but I will use this opportunity to say that I would make each of these decisions again tomorrow morning. At a time when the city is visited by about a million tourists a year, the man who runs it is obliged to do everything, sometimes even to his own detriment, in order for the businesses and the city to function.
One of the important decisions that you "behind" is the project to increase the city's property by buying and exchanging real estate with Jugopetrol and CEDIS in Škaljar, the Industrial Zone and Tabačina. Part of your coalition partners, primarily the SDP, now does not support those decisions. Why?
I wouldn't say that the SDP does not support it at all, because the decision came into the public eye in the past five months, and the project has been worked on for more than a year. As recently as last summer, it was decided at the coalition meeting that this is a job that should be entered. From then until December 2017, we conducted negotiations with Jugopetrol, carried out procedures, in order to sign a memorandum of intent to purchase those properties in December. We had people from SDP who led that process and participated in it in the most important part and to a significant extent. After that, we submitted a budget proposal for 2018 to the local Assembly, which stated 1,65 million euros to be paid as the first installment for the purchase of those properties. In that budget, you have a note on what kind of real estate should be bought, and I talked about it at the SO session. After that, at some point we have doubts about the legality and profitability of that business. We hired several different experts, including one whose reputation is known outside of Montenegro. When we gathered the reports and opinions of the experts and when it turned out that the work was legal in everything and would be profitable for the Municipality, on June 29 it was voted on and part of the collation was against it. I still cannot explain why someone today is against what they voted for less than a year ago and whose people participated in the creation of that proposal.
How do you comment on the mention of corruption?
It was mentioned that it was a corrupt deal that the SDP allegedly forewarned. I would ask them a logical question: how is it possible that the part of the work related to the purchase of real estate in Škaljar is legal, and the part related to the purchase in the Industrial Zone is allegedly illegal? It is the same procedure and it is completely illogical to claim something like that. I put that item on the agenda to the vote again because I believe that it opens up many opportunities for the city and that it would be very good if the Municipality of Kotor, when it is led by the opposition, generates income from real estate, buys and expands its property. We are a local government trying to increase city assets in times of complete sell-off. In the Industrial Zone, we are buying land from Jugopetrol with functional facilities, fully equipped with utilities, and in the case of its exchange with CEDIS for the location in Tabačina, it is possible to exchange it at the same time. The land of 80.000 square meters, which the Municipality already owns in the area we discussed with CEDIS, is communally unequipped and unparceled, and CEDIS will not change its facilities on Tabačina for it. It has already been estimated that Jugopetrol's complex would be useful enough for the local government to use, rent or ultimately resell. It doesn't seem to me that 50 euros per square meter in the iIndustrial Zone is a bad price for any kind of purchase.
The previous local government, led by opposition parties at the state level, collapsed over the sale of municipal property - Trsten to Oleg Deripaska. Could it happen that this government falls due to the increase in the property of the Municipality? If that happens, what message does the opposition send to the citizens?
That is not the way to go. Everything should be done to preserve power, but in a way that will show the public that there is a credible alternative to the ruling group in Montenegro. The alternative should show it with actions. It does not seem to me that we can "fall" on questions of any detail. We can only fail on matters of principle. As long as this administration talks and works in the interest of the city, I think it will survive. If that is questioned or stopped then we will have a problem. As mayor and Democratic official, I will do everything to ensure that the government survives and I will make every effort to reach a compromise. I will not allow compromise to turn into compromise.
Are you optimistic that the Kotor government will manage to push through to the end of the mandate?
I hope we will succeed in that. As long as we can talk arguments, I'm ready for any kind of conversation. If we talk about whims, I'm not ready for that. Everything that I did as the president of the Municipality, I did not do for the benefit of any political party, but for the benefit of the city.
The question of UNESCO at a turning point
How do you rate the performance of the Kotor administration?
A lot has been done in terms of investments, organization of cultural events and a kind of "awakening of the city". Right now we have a team of people seriously planning the path this city should take over the next seven years. The thing that burdened Kotor the most, the UNESCO issue, is now at a turning point and the state will have to permanently decide whether to preserve this area or not. One of the main successes of the local administration is that Kotor and the problems that plague it are today in the spotlight of the Montenegrin public. We really put the city in focus, often suffering because of it, but I think we can say that despite all the difficulties, the maximum that could be done was done.
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