The report of the non-governmental organization "Freedom House", which classified Montenegro in the category of hybrid regimes with a lack of democracy, accurately depicts an undemocratic state that has not had fair elections and a change of government for three decades.
This was assessed by representatives of the civil sector and political parties, stating that the document of an influential organization that was published yesterday is a serious warning sign to the Montenegrin government that the negative trends regarding the state of democratic institutions and the rule of law must be stopped.
Yesterday, the Government did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" about the report, which states that the democracy index for Montenegro is 3,86, which places it in a hybrid, transitional regime. That is, a country where the rule of law and electoral irregularities are among the key problems. The democratic character of the government was rated with 3,25, the electoral process with 4,25, the civil sector with 5,25, and the independence of the media with 3,25. Montenegro received 4,5 for the democratic character of local administration, 3,5 for the independence of the judiciary and 3 for the fight against corruption.
Ratings are given on a scale of one to seven, where seven represents the highest level of democratic progress.
The low item for democracy is an objective picture of reality and the result of undemocratic processes, which have been particularly intense in the last five years, said the president of the Board of Directors of the Alternative Institute (IA), Stevo Muk.
"The fact that such an assessment comes from Washington would have to be imagined by the leaders of the regime, who always associated critical assessments with Moscow, Belgrade and 'internal enemies'," Muk told "Vijesti".
Parliament is increasingly subordinated to the Government
The document states that the executive and legislative powers have continued to converge and that "the latter is increasingly subordinated to the former".
It is reminded of the criticisms of some NGOs and opposition parties that the supervisory role of the parliament was reduced compared to previous years and that the ruling coalition made several questionable decisions, such as the Law on Freedom of Religion and the decision to save the national airline from bankruptcy.
It also points to several controversial appointments in parliament, such as the appointment of Sreten Radonjić as president of the Council of the Agency for the Protection of Personal Data and Zorica Kalezić as vice-governor of the Central Bank.
It is also reminded of the arrests of the DF leader and MPs of that opposition political alliance, as well as the fact that Montenegro has entered the eighth year of EU accession negotiations, without the expected results at this stage.
It is stated that the elections are expected in October at the latest, and the state has not yet completed the reform of the electoral legislation.
"The pre-election year was marked by the intensification of the political crisis that arose after the parliamentary elections in 2016, when DPS took power again due to numerous irregularities. The opposition has since boycotted the parliament. However, because the opposition is fragmented, not all members of the opposition joined the boycott," states "Fridom House".
In 2019, it added, the dialogue between the DPS and the opposition failed despite the mediation of the international community.
It was assessed that the relationship between the government, other political actors and the civil society sector is characterized by a high level of mistrust and a low level of cooperation.
"However, Montenegrin civil society enjoys stronger support and a higher level of trust among the citizens of Montenegro. The level of public trust in non-governmental organizations (39,3 percent in December 2019) is higher than trust in political parties (25,6 percent), parliament (33,7 percent) and government (36,2 percent). The government and other political actors perceive NGOs as rivals, not as partners," the report says.
Montenegro, as it is added, has not yet developed a base of NGO projects that are financed from public funds.
The role of the civil sector in the organization of the "Resist" protest due to the "Envelope" affair is emphasized, and it is also recalled that NGOs requested the withdrawal of changes to the Law on Free Access to Information, which introduces new restrictions on access to information.
The integrity of the judiciary has been undermined by several scandals
In the part concerning the judicial system, it was assessed that its independence and integrity had been seriously undermined by a number of questionable administrative decisions and scandals involving high-ranking judicial authorities, resulting in a decline in public confidence in them.
The FH points out that the Government adopted the new Justice Reform Strategy 2019-2022, which, they say, continues the multi-decade reform process in that part. Previous efforts, they warn, have not produced the desired results of creating an independent, impartial, accountable and efficient judicial system.
In this part, controversial appointments are mentioned, among which is the third mandate of Vesna Medenica, as well as several affairs, among which are "apartments".
"This practice undermines the separation of powers and gives the government political influence over judicial officials," the document states.
They pointed out that the Institute of Alternatives asked the Constitutional Court to deal with that issue, but also pointed out at the same time that several judges are in a conflict of interest because they themselves received favors from the state in this area.
It is also reminded of the accusations of the businessman for whom the Interpol warrant was issued, Duško Knežević, that the Supreme State Prosecutor was bribed, but that the authorities did not investigate it, and that VDT Ivica Stanković denies the accusations.
As a positive part of the allegations about the judiciary, it is pointed out that the courts have made progress in transparency.
And the FH report states that Montenegro failed to establish solid results in the fight against corruption, especially at a high level. Several scandals that broke out last year, it added, undermined the rule of law, but also pointed to a lack of political will to prosecute corruption.
In the part concerning the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, it is written that its director Sreten Radonjić decided to retire before the end of his mandate after the working document of the European Commission in which anti-corruption efforts were criticized.
KAS did not investigate suspicions of possible illegal enrichment
The FH also respects the results of the KAS, stating that the number of decisions is small compared to the number of public officials.
"Several potential cases of high-level corruption were ignored by KAS in 2019, as it did in previous years. For example, President Milo Đukanović was accused of unexplained enrichment and violation of the Law on Prevention of Corruption when a photo of him wearing a watch worth over 1,5 million euros was published. KAS ignored the president's failure to declare these assets in official reports," the finding states.
It is also stated that the "Envelope" affair was not investigated to the end, and the finding also mentions that the Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism Pavle Radulović resigned after a video in which construction inspectors can be heard trying to extort money from a local businessman. No charges have been brought against them, the report notes.
In the part that concerns local self-governments, FH points out that the main challenges facing municipalities are structural and financial difficulties, and they also point out that their transparency levels continue to decline.
It is noted that in the meantime the government, led by the Democrats, was replaced in Kotor.
"The central government continues to put pressure on municipalities where the DPS is not in power, including by withholding funds for projects and sending various inspectors to harass local officials," the document said.
It is also noted that the majority of municipalities are faced with a surplus of employees, and that previous attempts to reduce them have been unsuccessful.
They point out that the state adopted a new plan to reduce the number of employees by 10 percent, but that significant progress in that direction has not been achieved. They pointed out as an example that last year 230 employees left the local government, but 137 new ones were hired.
Unexplored new and old attacks on journalists
In the FH report, it is noted that freedom of expression, freedom of the press and other media freedoms are under constant attacks and political pressure in Montenegro, and as proof of this they highlight the assessment of "no progress in the last three reports of the European Commission".
It should be noted that last year there was a serious physical attack on "Dana" journalist Vladimir Otašević, and that the "Vijesti" portal was the target of hacker attacks for four months last year. The report notes that none of the attacks have been solved.
They also note that investigative journalist Jovo Martinović was sentenced to 18 months in prison last January, but that a retrial was ordered.
In this part, it is noted that the journalist of "Dana" Vladimir Otašević was attacked by the official of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mladen Mijatović, who is the bodyguard of the controversial businessman Zoran Bećirović. Prosecutor Miloš Šoškić, who was in the company of Mijatović and Bećirović, did not prevent the attack. Later, RTCG released an incomplete video of the attack.
There was no progress during the year regarding the resolution of previous attacks on journalists and media property. The statement of the Director of the Police Administration, Veselin Veljović, is noted that the murder and responsibility of the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "Dan" Duško Jovanović and the attempted murder of the journalist "Vijesti" Tufik Softić will most likely remain unsolved due to omissions in the investigation. FH indicates that there has been no progress in finding the real attacker of Olivera Lakić, a journalist from "Vijesti", who was wounded two years ago.
It is emphasized that last year Montenegro started a significant reform of media laws. However, it is indicated that in some solutions the confidentiality of sources is undermined.
From FH, as positive news, they point out that the High Court confirmed that the entire management of RTCG was illegally dismissed in 2018, and that "Monitor" journalists Milka Tadić Mijović and Milena Perović Korać, after a long-term process in court, got "Pobjeda" and its editor at the time Srdjan Kusovac.
One of the co-authors of the "Fridom House" report "Countries in Transition" for 2020, the executive director of the Media Association of Southeast Europe Vuk Maraš, assessed that "this report should serve as a warning to the Montenegrin authorities that faking reforms no longer holds water and that they must provide concrete results in various fields".
"It is undeniable that without these concrete results, the EU integration process of Montenegro will continue to stagnate, and that relations with key international partners such as EU member states and the USA will be burdened by mistrust due to the fact that the government in Montenegro persistently fails to provide greater degree of the overall rule of law in our country," Maraš told Voice of America.
Muk: The government now blames NGOs
IA activist Stevo Muk said that the government's first reaction to the bad state of affairs in the country is once again looking for the culprits in non-governmental organizations from Montenegro, which, he said, shows that the government is not ready to go a step further than looking for the culprits in other people's ranks.
Andrija Nikolić, a member of the Democratic Party of Socialists, said earlier yesterday that NGOs that are "recognized as opponents of the government" set a special tone in the report.
Muk notes that Montenegro has been stagnating or regressing for years in all important areas monitored by the FH, and that in the context of such trends, this year's rating is not a surprise.
He adds that the assessment that technical reforms within the framework of European integration have not yielded results is now becoming a dominant position in Western circles.
"The myth of Montenegro as a leader in the region and a 'world record holder in European integration' seems to be collapsing like a house of cards. "Montenegro will have to find within itself the answer to the question of whether it will slip to the end into a dictatorship towards which it is rapidly moving, or whether it will find room for an agreement on a long-term democratic transition", warns Muk.
Marić: It is naive to expect ASK to "look" at Milo's watch
The executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) Boris Marić agrees that the evaluations from the report are grounded and based on real indicators.
"Democratic reforms have been stagnating for a long time, almost a whole decade, and what is particularly worrying is the fact that no solution to the political crisis is in sight," he said.
He also points out that today there is no clear border between the three main branches of government, because, he points out, they are mostly trapped, party conditioned, and democratically collapsed. Also that the judicial system had several key setbacks.
"Unconstitutional election for the third time of the President of the Supreme Court, the Judicial Council is acting, the Prosecutor's Office is acting. The 'Envelope' affair definitely brought the Montenegrin electoral system into the field of illegitimacy. The fight against corruption is declarative," warns Marić.
When asked to comment specifically on the results of ASK, Marić said that this institution is defined as independent, but in fact it is extremely dependent "whose budget is determined by the executive power, where key personnel are chosen according to the system of political suitability, which is an essential recurrence of the one-party system , whom DPS never renounced".
"It is so naive to expect the KAS to initiate some kind of administrative investigation into the value of Đukanović's watches, into the enormous assets of numerous government officials, into the misuse of state resources for electoral purposes," said Marić.
In part of the report, it is mentioned that the ASK ignored the fact that the president of the state and DPS did not declare a watch worth more than 1,5 million euros in his property records, after the photos were made public.
Marić also adds that the procedure related to the "Envelope" affair and Slavoljub Stijepović was an obvious example of satisfying the form and acting out of necessity.
"Which, in fact, was supposed to partially repair the political damage and try to convince a part of the citizens that the institutions are not so hopelessly trapped," said Marić.
He believes that media laws are one of the key indicators of the government's willingness to encourage democratic processes.
"RTCG and the establishment of direct and open party control over the public service can only happen in societies with hybrid regimes. I believe that the pressure of independent media, civil society and international representatives will contribute to media laws getting solutions that will affirm the freedoms necessary for the affirmation of democratic processes", Marić told Vijesti".
Janjušević: There are not even the most elementary democratic outlines
Political analyst Dragiša Janjušević told "Vijesta" that the report shows only one naked truth that was skillfully concealed and masked, stating that it is almost axiomatically clear and precise that countries in which the government has never been changed in elections cannot be a democracy.
"Even in our country, which became a constitutional democracy since 1905, the government has never been changed in elections and the Constitution has never come to life in its full capacity, that is, it has never come to life in its institutional capacity," Janjušević pointed out.
He assessed that this is best reflected if all three branches of government are analyzed, where "it is best shown how the party preserves its longevity in power with great influence on the judicial, legislative and executive powers".
That is why, as he pointed out, the lower levels of government and administration cannot have their own autonomy and level of democracy, but they must also be controlled by the party".
"Somewhere, when the parliament showed autonomy and independence, we had a notion from the strongest party - a parliamentary dictatorship, which actually shows how mature we are as a society and a country in a democratic sense. Because of this, the longer the transition period lasts, the more difficult it is to hand over power, and on the other hand, the form of government becomes stripped to such an extent that even the most layman sees that it does not even have the most elementary democratic outlines, but rather a hybrid model or facade democracy", he assessed. is Janjušević.
A democratic state does not arrest for posts on the networks
Member of the Democratic Front (DF), Jovan Vučurović, said that the report should not surprise, stating that the people live in the worst dictatorship in Europe.
"It is visible at every step. It is especially visible in the last two months when the pandemic was used to lead the DPS election campaign and to strengthen the dictatorship. This was also seen yesterday in Montenegro, when Velimir Čabarkapa was arrested in Pljevlja because described the Montenegro of this time in a witty and satirical way..." Vučurović pointed out.
The URA Civic Movement announced that the "Freedom House" report, according to which Montenegro is not a democratic country, clearly and concisely illustrates the state of the country, with the premise that it was never democratic.
"A country that in its history has never had free and fair elections and in which the government has never been replaced in such elections cannot be democratic. A country in which the current president and leader of the regime calls for extermination of political dissidents and free journalists cannot be democratic. "A system in which people are arrested for posting on social networks cannot be democratic. And that is just the basis of everything that makes this country a soft dictatorship," the URA stated.
They claim that they are glad that almost all relevant international organizations understand the nature of the DPS regime in Montenegro and that there is no more pretense in their reports.
"There is no more pretending about media freedom - we saw recently that we are on the ranking list in the society with African countries, there is no more pretending about basic freedoms and democracy - we see how we stand in this report".
Turning to the problematization of the judicial system, the URA indicates that, in addition to all other thirty-year problems, this is one of the biggest problems faced by Montenegro.
"It is difficult to expect anything from the judicial system when you have an autocracy at the base of the entire system, and even more difficult when in leading positions in the judiciary you have showmen who entertain the public with speeches and are paid handsomely by the citizens for that. Therefore, there is no progress from that address despite all the irrefutable evidence that compromises both the government and the people in the judiciary. Migo (Slavoljub) Stijepović, the actor of the largest confirmed criminal and corruption scandal in the history of Montenegro, is still the general secretary of the regime leader. "Svetozar Marović, the actor of the biggest criminal and corruption scandal in Montenegro, is still at large in Serbia," the URA reminds.
It is a special story, they add, that those who are supposed to take care of respect for the Constitution, as a sacred legal letter in a country, are trampling on it. They remind of the third term of the president of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica.
A warning sign for the government
The General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Ivan Vujović, assessed that the new report is a serious message to the Montenegrin authorities, a serious warning sign that the negative trends when it comes to the state of democratic institutions and the rule of law must be stopped and a clear departure from the current model of governance , instead of a democratic one, is based on an authoritarian model.
He said that the government must understand that the country is best defended by democracy and that the time has passed when it was possible to turn a blind eye to the obvious problems of the Montenegrin political system from our partner's western addresses.
"It must be a more than clear and sufficient sign for the Montenegrin authorities that after 2003, for the first time, Montenegro formally loses the status of a democratic country and is mentioned as a country where the government is based on authoritarianism. I guess it is clear to everyone that a country with such a way of governing can never become a member of the European Union".
Vujović assessed that Montenegro must make a new great democratic step forward and demonstrate through actions that the paradigm of party rule must be abandoned and space for a broad consensus and agreement on the key challenges that await us in the coming period.
The Socialist People's Party (SNP) states that it is a cruel and sad fact that this renowned international organization classified Montenegro in the category of governments in transition or hybrid regimes, in which the government is based on authoritarianism as a result of incomplete democratic change.
Regarding the evaluations of "Fridom House" about the problems in the judiciary, in which negative trends have been recorded and which cannot boast of independence in its work, the SNP announced that they pointed out many times the unsustainable situation in the judicial system of Montenegro.
Democratic Montenegro MP Zdenka Popović assessed that the part of the report related to the state of the judiciary is dramatic and worrying, especially if it is known that "DPS ideologue Svetozar Marović mocks justice and judicial authorities from neighboring Serbia".
Independent MP Aleksandar Damjanović believes that the assessments from the report that Montenegro is a hybrid or non-democratic country are the result of the actions of the current government, especially since 2016.
Damjanović said that, in less than four years, everything that was painstakingly done in establishing, as he stated, a not very great legal and institutional order was demolished.
"The 'Freedom House' report only states what every free-thinking citizen of Montenegro sees and experiences, before whose eyes otherwise fragile institutions are destroyed, the rule of law is abolished and the free expression of political views is made impossible," said Damjanović to the Mina agency.
"Montenegro and Serbia, for the first time since 2003, are not democratic states", is the conclusion of the report "Countries in Transition", which investigated and described the way of governance in 29 countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
The report for 2017 was written by Ivan Vuković
The ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) announced that the opinion of "Freedom House" was contributed by non-governmental organizations recognized, as they claim, as opponents of the government and devoid of objectivity and measure in their criticisms.
DPS MP Andrija Nikolić, commenting on the "Fridom House" report, in which it is written that Montenegro has lost the epithet of "partially consolidated democracies", said that there are perceptions in it that they do not agree with, but that they are "acknowledged".
By the way, the report for 2017 was prepared by the political analyst at the time, and now the mayor of Podgorica, Ivan Vuković (DPS).
Among his findings is that among the socioeconomic challenges of Montenegro remain high unemployment, especially among young people, and growing public debt, that corruption remains one of the most difficult challenges for development, and in the part that concerns the media, he clearly sees a division between those close to the government and to those who are not.
In the part that concerns the media coverage of the coup trial, it is written that "while the pro-government newspapers and portals strictly follow the official line, the opposition media almost made fun of the case."
The EC predicted a decline in the economy, the recovery of which cannot be estimated
In a new report published yesterday, the European Commission predicted a 5,9 percent decline in the Montenegrin economy this year, while the recovery in the next one, as they stated, will depend on the duration of the shock.
Growth of 4,4 percent is predicted for the next year, but, as stated, the recovery is still uncertain and subject to many risks.
"GDP is expected to decrease significantly by 2020 due to the negative effects of the covid-19 epidemic. The Montenegrin economy is strongly dependent on tourism, a key source of GDP growth, exchange rate changes, employment and fiscal revenues. However, the "lockdown" froze tourism and travel at a time when these activities were supposed to enter the high season. The economic recovery in 2021 depends on the duration of the shock", according to the EC's new spring forecasts.
The IMF recently forecast a nine percent decline in the Montenegrin economy, Standard and Poor's 7,8 percent, and the World Bank 5,6 percent.
Bonus video:
