The non-partisan personality, who is acceptable to everyone who sees Montenegro in the company of civilized, democratic and economically developed countries, has a great chance of winning the presidential elections, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said.
SDP Vice President Bojan Zeković believes that Montenegro needs a president who will defend the civil and secular state, preserve its EU orientation and credibility as a NATO member.
He stated that the candidate for president should not be a symbol of any party, but of a world view of values that has been attacked in various ways in the last two and a half years.
"A non-partisan personality, unencumbered by party burdens, acceptable to everyone who inherits the values of politics that sees Montenegro in the society of civilized, democratic and economically developed states. Such a candidate has a great chance to win", said Zeković to the MINA agency.
As he stated, the results of the elections show that the opposition parties do not gather all the voters dedicated to the values of civic and European Montenegro.
Zeković announced that, on the other hand, the policy of "Vučić's majority" represents serving other people's interests and an open negation of Euro-Atlantic values.
"The question for the opposition parties is whether we want to have a candidate who can win in the presidential elections or do we want to use the presidential elections for narrow party interests, aware that such an approach will enable the victory of Vučić's majority candidate", Zeković believes.
He said that a candidate who is not a representative of one political subject can more easily get the support of voters of other parties in that political field.
"I would have an additional advantage over the party candidate among those voters who share the fundamental constitutional values that we are fighting for, stand for a civil, secular Montenegro, a member of the EU and NATO, but for various reasons do not support the parties of the current opposition", Zeković believes.
All this, according to his words, is much more difficult for a party candidate, because he also carries party burdens, regardless of which political entity he comes from.
Zeković assessed that there are quality candidates, if there is an understanding that a cross-party approach is needed.
"I also believe that it is beneficial for further democratic maturation to have a president of Montenegro who is not a party functionary," Zeković said.
Asked whether it is acceptable for his party to have the president of the Atlantic Alliance's Board of Directors and former official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Milica Pejanović Đurišić as a candidate in the presidential elections, Zeković said that the SDP has already announced that they are giving priority to a supra-party candidate.
He said that the advantages of such an approach are clear, adding that if there is no understanding and agreement about such a concept, SDP will have its own candidate.
"First, it is necessary to reach an agreement on the concept with the political entities that could support such a candidate. I certainly think that Pejanović would be a good candidate for president", Zeković said.
He reminded that the SDP publicly announced before the election that the optimal option is a supra-party candidate who can gather civil and European-oriented political entities, associations, as well as long-term organizations.
"If there is no such agreement, the SDP is ready to run with its candidate in those elections," Zeković said.
Asked whether there were talks between the opposition parties and representatives of the parliamentary majority regarding the election of judges of the Constitutional Court, he said that the SDP has been insisting on dialogue for two whole years in order to elect the missing judges of the Constitutional Court, members of the Judicial Council and the Supreme State Prosecutor.
"The president of the SDP made public calls several times, addressed three times in writing to the presidents of the Assembly (Aleksi) Bečić and (Danijela) Đurović, but the parliamentary majority refused the dialogue. Today we see the consequences of such behavior", Zeković said.
He said that today "Vučić's majority" wants to take away from the opposition the right that was given to them when they were the opposition.
"When the parliamentary majority gives up the desire to "have a majority in the Constitutional Court", as the Deputy Prime Minister announced, and they want a Constitutional Court that is above any government, as far as the SDP is concerned - they are knocking on the open door", said Zeković.
He said that the approach demonstrated in the Parliament during the hearing of candidates, "which is more like a census based on nationality and religion", is not encouraging.
"The situation where the deputy of the Democratic Front, according to whose assessment the nationality and religious affiliation of one candidate for judge was an "atypical case", and she did not know "how to act properly", at the same time, it does not occur to anyone that candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court are viewed precisely as candidates for judges, and not as representatives of faiths and nations, shows the depth of the decline in values", Zeković believes.
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