The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), the Social Democrats (SD), the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) and the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) filed a criminal complaint against the President of the Assembly and the leader of the New Serbian Democracy Andrija Mandić to the Special State Prosecutor's Office today.
The head of the DPS parliamentary club, Andrija Nikolić, clarified that the report was submitted due to the suspicion that Mandić committed a criminal offense - abuse of official position.
"Contrary to the law, Mandić displayed the flag of a foreign country in his cabinet, which is regulated by the Law on the Use of the Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the State of Serbia, and the guests were not representatives of the State of Serbia and thereby humiliated the Assembly," said Nikolić at a press conference in the parliament.
The MP of the DPS said that Mandic committed discrimination by displaying the flag, which is the flag of a nation.
"Montenegro is defined as civil, not as a state of one people - Serbian, Montenegrin...", said Nikolić.
He emphasized that the president of the Assembly has the duty to be the president of all citizens.
"It is clear to us that Mandić has a political role to change the character of Montenegro. Another aspect is that Andrija Mandić creates divisions in Montenegro. He wants to bring Montenegro with a changed character into the 'Serbian world', with the aim of uniting all Serbs and listen to the official Belgrade. We believe that there is much that is disputed and that the authorities will investigate the report and at least they will listen to Mandić and those who participated in it," said Nikolić.
He believes that the president of the Municipality of Pljevlja, NSD official Dario Vraneš, committed a "treasonable act" and that the question is when the president of another municipality will do the same.
"We think and expect that Mandić's actions have enough grounds for him to be removed not only politically," said Nikolić.
Nenezić: They want to repeat the scenario from the eighties
SD MP Branislav Nenezić said that he has already stated several times that it is obvious that Mandic is someone who manages the ruling majority.
"The political elite working under the baton of Belgrade has not come to terms with the one from 2006. They want to repeat the scenario we saw at the end of the 80s in all the republics of the SFRY and the provinces," Nenezić said.
He believes that part of the ruling majority led by the Europe Now Movement, the Democrats, and the Albanian Forum should first of all tell their voters whether they support the "violation of the Constitution to hang the flag of another country in the Parliament".
Let them show character because this is first and foremost a criminal offense. You can't play with the country's reputation for the sake of political calculation," added Nenezić.
He said that everyone in Montenegro should have the right to live freely. "Freedom is something our ancestors died for. You don't have to love it, you didn't even want it in this form in 2006, but you have to respect it," he added.
Nikolić: The Bosniak party said it would not sign the application
When asked by journalists if he offered other parties to sign the criminal complaint, first of all the Bosniak party, Nikolić replied that it was signed by the MPs of DPS, SD, HGI and DUA and that it was enough MPs.
"If one man had signed, it would have been an alarm for SDT... We will see how the professional and general public, as well as the judiciary, will react," said Nikolić.
He said that they also invited the Bosniak party, but they told them last night that they would not sign the application. "We should ask them for the reason," he added.
"Vranes sent a message that he wants to separate"
On the occasion of the event in Pljevlje, Nikolić responded to the journalist's statement that it is not the first time that a holiday of another country is being celebrated and to recall the case of Albanian holidays in Tuzi:
"There are differences where we need to understand that. There are national holidays and holidays that are allowed by law. It is not disputed when the minority council celebrates a holiday. Here, the president of a municipality in Montenegro celebrated the statehood day of another country with taxpayers' money. Such examples send a picture of Montenegro in which the laws do not apply".
Nikolić said that if Vranes remains at the head of the Municipality of Pljevlja, then Spajić, Milatović and Bečić will be worse than him, because they are "civic parties that allow wildness in Montenegro and say that we should deal with other things ".
When asked whether they will take legal action against Vraneš, Nikolić said that their legal team is working on it and will inform in a timely manner.
"The prosecution should act here," he said.
He says that "it is not a problem for the Serbs to express themselves nationally. "But when the president of the municipality in Montenegro says that the territorial integrity is disputed because the borders were invented where they should not be, he is sending the message that he wants to separate from Montenegro. And by saying that 'God's Justice' is the anthem of all Serbs, it shows that he and his group did not accept the symbols of Montenegro," said Nikolić.
Lola: Montenegro has symbols and history and all officials must respect them
DPS MP Drita Lola said that the law prescribes how minorities use national symbols.
"Montenegro has symbols and history and all officials must respect them. That symbol is the fruit of chauvinist politics and chauvinist war. The national symbol is one thing, and the symbolism of using other symbols is another. The president equates all symbols," she said.
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