Last year, the leaders of the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) complained to the official Zagreb on several occasions about the alleged threats and pressures on Croats in Montenegro, which also caused messages from state officials of the Republic of Croatia that could be interpreted as an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of Montenegro. Above.
President of HGI Adrian Vuksanovic and vice president of that party Zvonimir Deković, who is also the president of the Croatian National Council of Montenegro (HNV), previously spent several days in Zagreb where they met with the president of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović (SDP), prime minister Andrija Plenković (HDZ) and numerous other high-ranking Croatian state officials.
In those talks, as was published on the party media HGI, Dux Radio from Tivat, the Croatian state leadership, among other things, informed them about "the pressures that representatives of Croats from Montenegro are facing from the new authorities" and about "the problem with faced by Croats in Montenegro."
The HGI did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" about the pressures, whether they come from the local authorities in Tivat, where the largest Croatian community in Montenegro is located and the headquarters of the HGI, or from the authorities at the state level of Montenegro. They stated that the questions were unprofessional and that they did not want to answer them.
Former president of HGI, now leader of the non-parliamentary Croatian Reform Party Marija Vučinović, says that "there is no more or less pressure on the Croatian community from the current government than there has been since Croats have been politically active in Montenegro." He understands the statements of Croatian officials as well-intentioned, aimed at supporting the minority in Montenegro.
In Tivat, a coalition of citizens' lists Narod Pobjeđuje - Bokeški Forum - "Goran Božović - honorable and responsible for a better Tivat" is in power, during whose mandate the Croatian flag, as a symbol of that national minority, was flown for the first time on the Tivat Municipality building on January 13 last year, on the day of the national holiday of members of the Croatian people in Montenegro. Two days earlier, in the presence of the city leaders of Tivat and Croatian diplomats in Montenegro, the Croatian flag was ceremoniously hoisted on the building of the House of Culture in Donja Lastva, where the headquarters of HNV is located, and it has been flown continuously ever since.
This makes Tivat the only place in Montenegro where the Croatian flag is permanently displayed on a public building that is not an embassy or consulate of the Republic of Croatia. Despite this, the leaders of HGI have often criticized the local authorities in Tivat in recent months in their public appearances and indirectly called them out for allegedly supporting Serbian nationalism and disrupting the civil environment in that multinational environment.
Deković and Vuksanović did not answer the "News" about the "problems faced by Croats in Montenegro", and what they complained about to the leadership of the Republic of Croatia during their several-day stay in Zagreb. They did not even answer the question of whether HGI talked to representatives of the current parliamentary majority in Montenegro about the possible entry of representatives of that party into the current Montenegrin Government.
Messages that minorities are welcome in the Government were repeatedly sent by the Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic and all the parties that give his government a parliamentary majority, but despite this, HGI decided to "adhere to the other side" - the opposition led by DPS, and together with that party, SD, SDP, LP and other minority parties, sign the joint "Patform for Civil and European Consensus" by which the opposition actually demands the fall of the Government and the calling of extraordinary elections.
By the way, since its creation 19 years ago, HGI has been closely cooperating with the DPS, which in the 2016 elections even deliberately transferred part of its "safe votes" to that party in the municipalities of Montenegro where a small number of Croats live, so that HGI would surely "jump over" it. anyway low preferential census for winning one mandate in the Parliament of Montenegro reserved for the representative of the Croatian minority. However, this tactic of DPS and HGI did not succeed in the last elections in August 2020, when HGI won political competition in the form of the newly formed Croatian Reform Party (HRS) for the first time in the fight for that one mandate for the Croats, so both HGI and HRS in the end, in the number of votes won, the rest were below the census threshold.
After the recent talks in Zagreb with Vuksanović and Deković, the biggest Croatian state leaders sent a series of controversial messages, such as that of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković "that Croatia will always react decisively if the identity of Croats in Montenegro or their security is threatened." HGI "Vijesti" did not answer what this message from Plenković meant and whether the Croatian Prime Minister explained to the leaders of that party how Croatia would react - diplomatically, militarily, with economic sanctions or in another way if there were such occasions, and whether this was a hint possible further interference of the official Zagreb in the internal affairs of Montenegro, according to the matrix on which the official Belgrade is already doing it, referring to "concern for the Serbs living in Montenegro".
"How such messages contribute to the affirmation of good neighborly relations and the respect of Montenegro as an internationally recognized state by its closest neighbors" is one of the questions "Vijesti" asked the leaders of HGI, which remained unanswered.
Croatian head of diplomacy Goran Grlić-Radman also, after his frequent meetings with the top of the HGI in recent times, he sent messages that could be considered interference of Zagreb in the internal affairs of Montenegro. "The Croatian government will help achieve all the goals of the Croats in Boka Kotorska. Croats will win the mandate in the next Montenegrin elections if they show unity, if they know what their goal is. This is where the Croatian Government will certainly help in achieving all their goals. It is important that the Croats of Boka Kotorska feel that they are not alone, that they have protection through the Republic of Croatia, but also of course through their mother country," said Grlić-Radman.
Deković and Vuksanović did not clarify with what right Grlić-Radman, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of a foreign country, gives recommendations to Montenegrin citizens - Croats in Montenegro as to how they should organize politically and in how many parties, how to participate in elections and how to dispose of the mandates won.
Is this not a direct and inappropriate interference of the Croatian authorities in the internal political situation in Montenegro and have you witnessed such behavior of Montenegrin state officials in relation to Montenegrins living in the Republic of Croatia - is another question that the leaders of HGI have kept silent on.
Milanović supported Đukanović and DPS
Croatian President Zoran Milanović hosted his Montenegrin colleague and leader of the opposition DPS Milo Đukanović in Zagreb a few days after the events in Cetinje on September 5. Milanović then said that Đukanović's visit, which he said was "accelerated by these strange and inconvenient events in Cetinje in recent days", was an opportunity to support "modern, civil and open Montenegro" and promised that he would "warn Western partners about the real situation in Montenegro."
"Ignorance is the cause of the West's weak reactions to the events in Montenegro," said Milanović at the time, not hiding that this is how official Zagreb demonstrates its support for the political forces in Montenegro led by Đukanović, which it considers pro-European and democratic. "Croatia is one of the few countries that understands the situation in Montenegro. Croatian officials are one of the few who are well involved in these processes and their perception is correct. Unfortunately, we don't have such a case in all European addresses, that's why some retrogradations can be established here as standards," said the president of HGI Adrijan Vuksanović, later in the Crogor media, about such a move by Milanović.
The government does not care about the "Croatian world"
"The term 'Serbian world' is a euphemism for Greater Serbian politics," said Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović after meeting with Milanović in Zagreb. The current Belgrade policy claims that Serbia has the right to protect the "allegedly endangered rights of Serbs" in other countries, he said, adding that he sees it as a "threat to the sovereignty" of neighboring countries. The Montenegrin president said that he bases this assessment on the experience from the wartime nineties, when Belgrade also called for "the protection of endangered rights". Less than two months later from Zagreb, where Đukanović was warmly welcomed, from the highest addresses, and after a meeting with the leaders of HGI, it was announced that "Croatia will always react decisively if the identity of Croats in Montenegro or their safety is threatened." The Montenegrin president, but neither the government, so far, however, have not announced whether they see this as a danger for Montenegro from some "Croatian world."
Vučinović: I understand the messages from Zagreb as support for the community in Montenegro
Marija Vučinović reminds that for 17 years as the then president of HGI, "until then the only political party of Croats in Montenegro", she had numerous meetings with the presidents of Croatia who, she says, always provided unreserved logistical support to the Croatian community in Montenegro. "That's why I interpreted the message of Mr. President Zoran Milanović this time as well," says Vučinović.
Commenting on Plenković's statement "that Croatia will always react decisively if the identity of Croats in Montenegro or their security is threatened", the interviewee states that this is a personal issue for him and those who spoke with him. "We from HRS understood his statement as logistical support for the Croats, which we always and only asked for," he adds.
The Croatian foreign minister's comment is in the same direction: "And this is a question for Mr. Gordan Grlić-Radman and those with whom he spoke." The mission of HRS is to be a bridge of cooperation between the two countries, Croatia and Montenegro. However, what is almost unbelievable is that none of the leaders of the Croatian state government, since the founding of HRS, has expressed a desire, let alone heard the second bell," says the president of HRS.
She explains that the problem faced by the Croats in Montenegro is best illustrated in the damaged relations within the Croatian community itself.
"As a reminder, I would like to refer to an event from three years ago, which represents a classic coup in the until then only political party of Croats in Montenegro, initiated by the current president and two vice-presidents of HGI, which caused the split. Unfortunately, this initiative for my removal as the president of HGI was also supported by the high diplomatic representative of the Republic of Croatia in Montenegro, who then defended only one opinion. At the moment of the aforementioned politically inappropriate act, conditions were created for the establishment of a municipal board in Bar and Podgorica, which were prevented by the current president and two vice-presidents of HGI, apparently due to the ambition to "privatize" the party, following the same model as recently before that, HNV was "privatized" by the old-new president", recalls Vučinović.
He claims that after that a large number of people who made the biggest contribution to obtaining benefits for Croats and for HGI to achieve historic success and win the largest number of votes since its establishment in the October 2016 parliamentary elections left HGI on their own initiative.
The HRS, he adds, welcomed the signing of the Memorandum on cooperation between minority parties and certain political parties from the government: "Given that we are a recognizable minority in Montenegro, although we do not have parliamentary status, we expect in the foreseeable future to be invited to participate in the signing of the Memorandum, and everything for the good of Montenegro," she told "Vijesta".
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