Portrait of Andrija Mandić: The old wolf's new suit

We need to reorganize Montenegro in such a way that we first reconcile it and impose new values, those known by today's Europe, those known by today's Western world...

That's how, in March 2008, the then candidate for the President of Montenegro and the leader of the former Serbian People's Party (SNS) spoke. Andrija Mandic.

Fifteen years later, he is again in the race for the head of state, with even, at least for now, milder messages - this time as one of the leaders of the Democratic Front (DF), the alliance that led the opposition to victory over the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) in 2020. Milo Đukanović and the first electoral change of government in Montenegro.

If in the last three decades everything on the political scene has revolved around the leader of the DPS, like around the sun, then for almost two decades Mandic has played an unavoidable and prominent role on that stage, acting as a protector of the rights of Serbs.

He will try to get hold of an important position in the presidential elections scheduled for March 19, after in 2020, when he symbolically removed the halo of the eternal opposition loser, he and the other DF champions were not allowed to enter the Government due to opposition from the West. . Indeed, Mandić "tasted" power during the time of the FRY, in 1999, as deputy federal minister of economy. Milan Bek, in the reconstructed Government Momir Bulatović.

In Mandić's official biography, there is no information about when he entered the party waters. Although his involvement in the People's Party (NS) is considered the first, his former associates claim that he entered politics through the Alliance of Reform Forces of Yugoslavia Anto Marković in the early nineties, but that he "deleted" that part of his life.

With the group led Božidar Bojović leaves NS in 1997, after being part of the party's leadership headed by its then president Novak Kilibard approached Đukanović, and founded SNS.

Six years later, there was a split in that party as well, after the conflict between Mandić's and Bojović's factions. Mandić then becomes the head of SNS, while Bojović s Ranko Kadić forms the Democratic Serbian Party, accusing the opposite camp of carrying out a coup and breaking up the party, and then indirectly calling the SNS part of the "regime opposition".

In 2012, Bojović wrote in his memoirs that Mandić was hard-working, that he "quickly coped with new unforeseen situations" and that he noticed in him "some traits that characterize good politicians".

At the time of the referendum on the independence of Montenegro in 2006, Mandić was one of the leaders of the unionist bloc, which advocated the survival of the union with Serbia. Immediately after the vote for independence, he resigned from the party position as a "sign of moral and political responsibility due to the referendum result", but the Main Board (GO) of the SNS did not accept it.

Two years later, in April 2008, in the first presidential elections after the restoration of statehood, Mandić was the candidate of the Serbian List, a coalition of pro-Serbian parties formed after the victory of the sovereigntists in the referendum. Although some opponents and the public criticized his candidacy because he called Montenegro a "state-like creation", Mandić then said that he recognized Montenegro, and that he characterized it as such "because it is as far from the rule of law as an anthropomorphic monkey is from a man". . In the elections, he came second, after Filip Vujanović (DPS), with 19,55 percent of support, or 64.473 votes.

In October 2008, when Đukanović's Government unanimously recognized Kosovo's independence, Mandic allegedly went on a 13-day hunger strike in the parliament as a sign of protest. The strike ended after, as it was announced at the time, he accepted the position of the SNS leadership.

He led it until January 2009, when, by uniting with Bulatović's People's Socialist Party, the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) was created, of which Mandić has been the president ever since.

Although that party, like the DF of which it is a part, advocates strong ties with Russia, and although it strongly opposed Montenegro's entry into NATO, Mandić had a different opinion about that military alliance fifteen years ago. In a dispatch from the US Embassy to Washington, published by WikiLeaks in 2011, it is written that in 2007, Mandic tried to convince the SNS membership to support NATO membership.

In the document titled "Pro-Western Serbian Nationalist in Montenegro", which is marked as sensitive, it is written that Mandić told the then advisor for political affairs at the US Embassy that the GO of the SNS rejected his idea, claiming that the voters would not agree to it. . The cable states that, while highlighting the importance of Russia for Montenegro, he announced that he was trying to persuade the party to end its opposition to NATO, calling itself "pro-Western".

Upon joining NATO, he announced that Montenegro had never had allies that were closer to it than Russia and Serbia, and that it would be the first country to leave the Alliance.

Mandić is with a colleague from DF Milan Knežević first-instance sentenced to five years in prison for an alleged terrorist attempt in 2016 with the aim of preventing the country from joining NATO. The organizers of the action were allegedly Russian citizens. The verdict was overturned two years ago by the Court of Appeal, and the retrial started in November.

Mandić was also tried for attempting to violently change the constitutional order during the DF protest in October 2015, in front of the Assembly, when, as the Prosecution claimed, he was with a colleague Slaven Radunović called for the overthrow of the order by declaring that "the matter must be brought to an end". Riots broke out at the meeting, which was followed by the intervention of the police, and Mandić took refuge in the "Kristal" restaurant, which is why political opponents still call him names today. In that case, the acquittal was confirmed.

In addition to the above, Mandić's opponents particularly criticize his frequent visits to the Serbian president's house Aleksandar Vučić, whom he claims is his friend and that he does not receive any instructions from him.

"Regardless of the fact that someone is the president of the country, I would never allow anyone to do that - nor does he, on the other hand, want to establish superior-subordinate relations," he said on one occasion, repeating that Serbia is the closest address.

In 2011, Mandic announced that he would never renounce his Serbian citizenship, and that he called on all Montenegrin citizens who have a Serbian passport to do the same.

In 2021, Vučić awarded him with the Order of the Serbian Flag of the first degree for his services in developing cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro. A year earlier, from the then Serbian Minister of Defense Alexander Vulin, he received a memorial medal for his contribution to the defense system of Serbia, because he commanded a battery during the NATO bombing of FRY. He also received the award, the Order of the White Angel of the first degree, from the patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC). Porphyria in May.

Since 2007, Mandić has also "carried" the infamous "title" of the Chetnik duke, which was awarded to him by the Chetnik duke's will. Milo Rakočević. The leader of the DF has not spoken about it for years, and one of the fifteen who also received the title at the time, stated that Mandić should be developed because he avoids taking the oath.

In contrast to previous years, when, among other things, he declared that "Montenegro is on the verge of civil war" and called on "Soldiers of Christ" and "war comrades from '91. and '99. to be ready", Mandić has been acting unrecognizably conciliatory for half a year, saying from the parliamentary bench that "there is never enough breadth and forgiveness in politics" and that "one should be understanding for other people's and one's own faults".

Against this background is his assessment that the DF are fully aware that Montenegro is in NATO and that some decisions cannot be changed overnight, as well as the statement that not everyone in the DPS is like the top of that party, and that he is sure that "we will also have useful members of the community in the young generation of DPS politicians".

In the run-up to the presidential elections, Mandić continues with soft tones, stating that "a hand is extended to everyone" and that he believes in victory.

Perhaps the reason for the peace-making rhetoric is that all the key addresses of the West are clear and loud - the "old" DF cannot be their ally.

From entrepreneurship to politics

In Mandić's biography on the NSD website, it is written that he was born in 1965 in Šavnik, and that he graduated from the Faculty of Metallurgy and Technology in Podgorica.

It is said that before active political involvement, he was a successful entrepreneur.

"As director and co-owner of a joint-stock company for the processing of non-ferrous metals, he organized the first private production of aluminum alloys in Montenegro. In cooperation with the Faculty of Metallurgy and Technology, he worked on the design, manufacture and installation of equipment for aluminum casting, as well as on commercial metallurgical engineering".