Reactions after the police arrest: Confirmation that the elections were not free

The allegations of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) that a group of police officers, alleged collaborators of the mafia, used money obtained from cocaine smuggling to influence the results of the parliamentary elections in 2020, confirms suspicions about the strong connection of the former government with crime and that the elections were not free, according to the interlocutors. News”.

In the files of the SDT, on the order of which several policemen were arrested in the previous days, suspected of working for criminal groups instead of the state, it was stated, among other things, that they used money obtained through criminal activity in the parliamentary elections in August 2020 in Montenegro. "influenced voters not to exercise their right to vote".

For some "Vijesti" interlocutors, this is proof of the long-term convergence of the state and crime, which is additionally problematic because the new government was not able to solve it without the help of foreign intelligence services, in this case Europol.

Head of the parliamentary club of the Democratic Front and an official of Nova Slaven Radunović says that all the most ominous suspicions about the corruption of the Montenegrin police and prosecutor's office turned out to be true.

"The fact is that a man is participating in the elections today who, it is completely clear, is the organizer and commander of practically the largest part of these activities that we are witnessing. I'm not referring to individual executions because he probably didn't go to those little things, but apparently he asked them to get dirty money and later use that dirty money to buy votes," he told "VIjesti".

During the rule of DPS, the opposition pointed out for years that votes were bought in elections and citizens were blackmailed on how to vote. There was never an investigation into this in the State Prosecutor's Office, and every case that was opened never reached the court.

"You don't think that some criminalized policemen would spend their dirty money on some votes out of the blue, but it is part of the organized criminal activity of a criminal group called DPS, more precisely a group of its officials, party members and those who are appointed to the institutions of the system" , Radunović believes.

The leader of Demos says the same Miodrag Lekić, who explains that it is about "an established system of a hybrid society with precise roles of the top of the government and their active followers, i.e. executors of assigned tasks".

"It is a vertically structured network of the top of politics, headed by the supreme leader and confidential operational people - advisers, police officials, secret services with collaborators, people from the judiciary, all the way to a wide circle of propagandists".

Lekić adds that it is a dark system that the new government did not even recognize, let alone significantly change.

"That's why the personal connections between the state and crime are not surprising. It's surprising, actually it's scandalous, that the new government is not able to reveal all this, but it happens with the help of professional European services," says the leader of Demos.

The Democratic Party of Socialists and other opposition parties, as well as the GP URA, did not respond to the request of "Vijesti" to comment on the allegations from the SDT order.

Member of the Democratic People's Party (DNP), a member of the DF, Maja Vukićević she said that it has now been confirmed that the elections were not free:

"The entire state apparatus was such that it was in the service of one man and, unfortunately, there are still people in important positions who are in direct contact with criminal clans, which also raises the issue of personnel policy in the Police Directorate," said Vukićević to "Vijesta". .

Vice President of the Assembly Branka Bosniak (Movement for Change) said that the latest events speak of the strong connection of the political top itself with crime, which has been pointed out for years and was visible to everyone, except for those who did not want to see it, knowing who is sponsoring everything.

"This is proof that crime, and the most monstrous and primitive one, controlled all the institutions of the system and led the state. This is also proof of why not a single vote of those who want to heal the state should go to Đukanović, because he and his rule created such an environment in which the mafia stole our state. That is why we urgently need to proceed with fundamental reforms, lustration, vetting in the judiciary, prosecution and police, dismantling of the National Security Agency...", said Branka Bošnjak.

She believes that it would be responsible if the Director of the Police Administration was also responsible Zoran Brđanin resign.

"All this was discovered only because Europol helped us, because if it hadn't, this symbiosis would still function smoothly," she told "Vijesta".

PES: An additional shadow is cast on the elections

The Europe Now Movement (PES) told "Vijesti" that the latest allegations, which include intimidation and the buying of votes obtained through crime, cast an additional shadow on all election processes in the period when DPS had apparent dominance on the political scene.

"We believe that no one was surprised by the allegations that a kind of electoral engineering was carried out years ago, both extra-institutionally and through the institutions of the system, which, guided by narrow party interests, supported the survival of the regime. We witnessed that the election maneuvers also related to the separation of certain municipalities and the abuse of institutions, including the Constitutional Court, which served the DPS as slowing down the process of democratic transition", they state from PES.

"Somebody has to be held accountable"

Slaven Radunović said that due to the fact that the suspected group of policemen were "allowed to do the same or similar jobs for three whole years", someone should also bear political responsibility.

"In the worst case, even if they didn't do them in these three years, they used them to cover their tracks. It is a tragedy for the Montenegrin rule of law, and someone must also be politically responsible for that, because those who took it upon themselves to do it instead of the DF, had neither the knowledge nor the political strength to do so, nor the personal courage," Radunović said. "News".

He says that these are the institutions of the system to which they were referred when, as he said, they opposed the DPS and their kerbers using street methods. "We were invited to turn to this kind of police, to go to Milivoj Katnić as a prosecutor, and to be judged by Vesna Medenica. I guess it is clear to everyone today that when they said that the DF was radical, that it was exaggerating, that we were right and that was the only way to fight," said Radunović, stating that the DF, if it had been part of the government, would not have waited three years for such arrests to occur.

Đukanović: I call on the prosecution to react efficiently

Yesterday, Milo Đukanović, answering questions from journalists about the arrests of police officers who were in office during the DPS administration, said that, regardless of whether it was about police officers or anyone else, he welcomed the activities of the prosecution.

"You don't expect anything other than to welcome the activities of the prosecutor's office when dealing with these cases. I call on the prosecutor's office to respond effectively by applying the law and to work in such a way as to instill confidence in the citizens," said Đukanović.