Although their diplomatic representatives in Montenegro and in this campaign for the Montenegrin local elections, which will be held on October 23, repeated the earlier practice of appearing and even speaking at pre-election meetings of one of the parties, the authorities of the Republic of Croatia yesterday raised the which can be considered an open and inappropriate interference of the Government of that country in the internal affairs of Montenegro.
Namely, the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia Gordan Grlić Radman in his office in Zagreb, he recorded a video message of support for one of the two national parties of the Croatian minority in Montenegro - the Croatian Civic Initiative.
Addressing the "dear Croatian men and women of Boka, men and women of Tiv, Grlić Radman invited them in the video to vote for HGI in the elections in that city on October 23.
"Local elections in Tivat are an opportunity to decide the fate of your family and your city. Stay upright and be yourself, draw the future of the Croatian people with your own hand by voting for the side of the Croats - the Croatian Civic Initiative. Because you are an important piece in the mosaic of Montenegro. Confirm it with your vote and be an important factor on Montenegro's European path. Croatia is with you!", said the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs in the Government of the Republic of Croatia to the voters in Tivat.
HGI shared Grlić-Radman's video on its pages on social networks and publicly thanked the head of Croatian diplomacy "for his support in the upcoming local elections in Tivat".
Former ambassador and president of the International Relations Committee of the Assembly Miodrag Lekić (Demos) said that "the pre-election, motivational speech of a high-ranking representative of the Croatian state on the occasion of the elections in Montenegro and the election activism of a Croatian diplomat on the territory of the Montenegrin state deserve not only a reaction from the public but also concrete moves by representatives of the Montenegrin government".
"Reactions in such cases - and they do not refer only to the Croatian side, as there were similar inflows from other countries - are absent for at least two reasons. First, the value disintegration of the country, now also with the specifics of the territorial character, is an old story. Feudalization of the state, that step backwards, was nurtured for a long time. Now we are just witnessing some form of final reckoning. Another reason for the absence of a normal state reaction stems from the fact that Montenegro is currently without institutional and personal authorities that would have the role of protector of the country's dignity and the preservation of the constitutional system," he told "Vijesti".
Croatian consul at the election rally
The Ministry led by Grlić-Radman previously did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" regarding the appearance of the Consul General of the Republic of Croatia in Montenegro. Jasminke Lončarević at the pre-election meeting that HGI held on Sunday at the Pine waterfront in Tivat.
Related Articles
Neither from the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in Zagreb, nor from the Consulate General in Kotor, nor from the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Podgorica did "Vijesti" receive an answer to the questions to explain what the Consul General in Montenegro was doing at the pre-election promotional meeting of one of the parties that participates in the local elections in Tivat, and whether this can be considered a violation of Article 41 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, in terms of the illegal interference of a foreign diplomat in the internal affairs of the host country, because parliamentary and local elections are certainly the internal affairs of the country in which they are held accredited diplomats.
On Sunday, Consul Lončarević attended a promotional meeting organized by HGI on the city's Pine waterfront in Tivat. Together with the president of that party and the holder of the electoral list of HGI for the upcoming local elections on October 23 in Tivat Adrian Vuksanović, members and sympathizers of that party, Consul Lončarević took a photo at the HGI stand, from which the party's propaganda material and its election program were distributed to the target audience, and she spoke to the crowd.
HGI bragged on social networks about the photos in which, among others, the Croatian diplomat poses at their stand.
Diplomats of the Republic of Croatia serving in Montenegro have been applying similar activities of participating and even giving speeches at HGI pre-election gatherings for years - from former ambassadors Petar Turčinović i Ivan Sutlić Perić to the current one Veselka Grubišić, and the former consul Hrvoj Vuković and current consuls Jasminke Lončarević.
They do not respond from the department of Krivokapić
We did not receive answers to the questions that we sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro regarding the internal political activities of Consul Lončarević in Montenegro, even from the department headed by the minister Ranko Krivokapic (SDP).
The head of Montenegrin diplomacy and the honorary president of the SDP, however, was very resolute in other similar cases when media articles appeared about the presence and participation in the election campaign in Budva, the representative in Serbia of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, the Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić.
"The presence of certain SNS officials from Niš in Budva and their direct participation in the DF pre-election campaign is a direct attack on the Constitution of Montenegro. I think that Article 54 of the Constitution prohibits the operation of political organizations from abroad. Bearing in mind that they are returnees, it is obvious that there is a political will not to arrest and prosecute them because, politically speaking, this is a creeping aggression, which means that this norm in the Constitution shows that the creeping aggression of another state is at work on Montenegro, and the state must react there ", explained Krivokapić, reminding that SNS representatives were previously present and active in Montenegro during the campaign for the last local elections in Nikšić.
Incidentally, the Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs is a member and high-ranking official of the ruling party in Croatia - the Croatian Democratic Union.
Lekić: Croatia would react if its citizens were being directed from some country
All this historical involution, including the tendency to lead ethnic communities from other countries, is worryingly complemented by today's reality in which, according to many indications, some state institutions are quite attuned to foreign services, said Lekić.
"Here, in these conditions, the election video of the Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs appears on the occasion of the political elections in Montenegro. Otherwise, it is hard to believe that Croatia, as a serious country, would allow, or at least not react, in the event that the minister of foreign affairs of another country, say Serbia, interferes with his instructions to Croatian citizens on how to vote in elections in Croatia. Unfortunately, such a season is open in Montenegro. Not since yesterday. And it does not only refer to Croatian interest".
Now all that remains, he adds, is for everything to be completed, so that the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia instructs the residents of Beran or Herceg Novi, perhaps all Serbs who make up more than 30 percent of the population of Montenegro, how to vote in the elections.
"Given such a state of affairs - why should the Albanians in Montenegro not receive public election instructions from Albania and Kosovo, especially since it already happened. Bosniaks also, from Sarajevo, maybe Ankara. Well, who listens”.
He explains that such topics would not even exist if, as he says, there was a built hierarchy of state values and an integrated state-constitutional space.
"... If there were established fundamental values of Montenegrin democracy that we would all build, with the result of a broad consensus... All ethnic communities would be legitimately, and primarily in the domain of cultural ties, connected with their compatriots in other countries, at the same time firmly standing in values to the institutional system of the state of Montenegro. As, after all, are the experiences of European countries that are easy to consult".
Bonus video:
