Protests in Montenegro, Albania and Serbia, despite their differences and different demands, have points of convergence in citizens' dissatisfaction with everyday life and the lack of democracy, say analysts from the region.
In Montenegro, Serbia and Albania, protests against the ruling regimes of Milo Đukanović, Aleksandar Vučić and Edi Rama are taking place in parallel, demanding the resignation of the leaders of these countries, but still, political analyst from Serbia, Cvijetin Milivojević believes that the protests in these three countries may they only partially have one point of connection.
"It's dissatisfaction with life, the ordinary everyday life of citizens, but each of them has some "flavor" that distinguishes them," says Milivojević for "Vijesti".
He states that to observers from the outside, it seems that the protests in Albania are directed against the personality of Prime Minister Edi Rama, who, according to Milivojević, as a leftist and socialist, should be a man of social justice.
"But I see that the main objections of the demonstrators, his political opponents, but also the citizens, are the inclination towards corruption and some criminal activities of this Albanian government. I don't see that there, as for example in Serbia, state policy is called into question," says Milivojević. When it comes to Montenegro, says Milivojević, the specific thing is that Milo Đukanović's time is actually passing.
Mass protests replaced half of the cabinet in Albania: From the protests in Tirana"He is a wasted player for the operations he had to perform from the time he was Slobodan Milošević's favorite associate after the "Yellow Beam" to the time he was a key NATO player until Montenegro joined Europe. His range of left and right deviations from nationalist, I would even say chauvinist, to someone who is extremely civic-oriented, he changed everything, and his use value in the international community has been spent", says Milivojević.
"What the western part of the international public expected from him was the entry of Montenegro into NATO, and there is no need for him to continue to be some kind of pet and personality that the international community will pat. The player was actually spent and what would be said in the bar - let's see what we had, let's draw the line," he adds.
"The executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) Boris Marić believes that the protests in the region have, despite their specificities, a common denominator in the fact that these societies have a pronounced problem of progress in establishing a functional democracy.
"Montenegro continues to suffer from the lack of electoral legitimacy, the irremovability of the government, high corruption, pronounced social stratification, which is largely the image and societies of the region. These are the reasons that result in the expression of citizens' dissatisfaction and protests that demand a change in the situation", says Marić and adds that the feeling of lack of perspective and the indecent capture of state institutions by the interests of the parties in power additionally forces a protest against the government, which is personified as a key problem.
"The opposition structures are not without responsibility either, which have not found the necessary common goal for a long time, so civil protests force them to take a different approach," says Marić.
Milivojević adds that he does not see that the majority of citizens in Montenegro feel as if they live in a democratic country and points out that the dice were stacked in some way for the protests.
"There is no interest of the international factor that since he maintains the power of Đukanović while he does some work, and he is a record holder when it comes to the continuity of power and he did not step down from power. How things will unfold depends on how the opposition will behave," emphasizes Milivojević.
He says that it is important that at local protests, which take place in Serbia, local themes are nominated. "For example, there is no drinking water in Zrenjanin, such topics reconcile citizens, even those who voted for Vučić". Always, he adds, the most effective protests have been where there is an understanding between those forces that make up the political aspect of the protest and those that are civil activism. "You always have topics that will reconcile the citizens, these topics are suprapolitical and it only matters how it is coordinated on the political spectrum," he says.
Marić also points out that we can also look for certain causes in the overly bureaucratized and uncertain process of negotiations with the EU.
"Which forces action outside the institutions, the need to send a message that the problems in this region are not being solved but are multiplying. The societies of the region, i.e. the citizens, are justifiably looking for changes and reforms, institutions that work in the interests of the citizens and not the political powerful, so that the non-institutional way of acting through various forms of protest is legitimate, and it can be said that it is necessary to speed up the democratic processes", concludes Marić.
In Serbia, dissatisfied with Kosovo, even those who voted for Vučić
Milivojević states that the matter is more specific in Serbia, because, as he says, Vučić did not round off his power on the promises for which he received the mandate. "Vučić came to power not by criticizing the state policy of Boris Tadić's Democratic Party. He accused them of renouncing Kosovo, and said that when we come to power, we will cancel all the agreements that Tadić's government signed regarding Kosovo, not that it did not happen, but Vučić and his government went five steps further. , says Milivojević.
We must talk about topics that reconcile citizens: From the protest in BelgradeVučić, he adds, misled voters in all elections.
"He didn't promise anything for Kosovo in 2015, 2016 and 2017, he ran away from making a statement and his first crisis comes at the very moment when the international community expects him to quickly resolve the issue of Kosovo," he says. According to Milivojević, Vučić wants immediate elections, because if they wait with the elections until he announces his plan for Kosovo, i.e. the delimitation, he could lose a lot.
"The delimitation does not satisfy his voters, because two thirds of his voters are former voters of Slobodan Milošević and the Serbian Radical Party. At the same moment, his support drops from 55 percent to below 40 percent," he states.
Hasani: Protests are legitimate and important, but they cannot replace elections
The journalist of the Albanian television Vizion Plus, Arban Hasani, says that protests are an important tool for democratic processes, but that they cannot replace free elections.
"It is impossible for them to fall after protests instead of free and fair elections. Protests, refusal of dialogue, violence in the streets bring chaos and anarchy. Democracy has its own rules and the minority cannot impose itself on the majority. It is the duty of the Government to prepare elections when the electoral process begins, and it is the duty of the opposition to convince citizens that they are a better alternative. Protest, peaceful or violent, can never replace the electoral process," says Hasani.
Hasani adds that the protests must be massive in order to upset governments. "But are these protests in the region massive? Is most of the people on the street? A mass protest is different from a party manifestation," he says and recalls that half of Rama's cabinet was replaced after mass student protests in December. Hasani adds that street revolutions are a thing of the past and that the opposition, whether in Albania, Montenegro or Serbia, must convince voters to support it and thus come to power.
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