The presence of the President of the Parliament of Montenegro Andrije Mandić (NSD) at the All-Serbian Parliament in Belgrade, as the leader of one of the key institutions in Montenegro, is completely unacceptable, because he supports the wrong project and shows that he is putting the interests of the party and the part of the people to which he belongs before the interests of the entire community.
This is how the interlocutors of "Vijesti" from Serbia and Montenegro evaluate the presence of the first man of parliament, who announced that he came to Belgrade with the delegation of the New Serbian Democracy as a representative of the Serbian people in Montenegro.
"When it comes to representing (a part of) the Serbian people in Montenegro, I think that, contrary to expectations, it is about harming one's own position, because openly admitting that you are in a subordinate position to the head of a neighboring country, no matter how friendly it is, is not politically profitable" , said the professor of political sociology at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade Zoran Stojiljkovic.
The All-Serbian Assembly, under the slogan "One nation, one assembly - Serbia and Srpska", during which the two governments adopted a joint "Declaration on the Protection of National and Political Rights and the Common Future of the Serbian People", was held on Saturday at the initiative of the President of Serbia and Republika Srpska , Aleksandar Vučić i Milorad Dodik. Mandić also attended the joint session of the governments of Serbia and RS. He stated that a large delegation of Serbian political representatives from Montenegro was also present at the meeting, including Serbian deputies from the Assembly, presidents of municipalities and assemblies who are Serbs, directors or board presidents of large public companies.
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"So, those people who were voted for by the Serbian people and who want to preserve the unity of this people, because we are Serbs from Montenegro like other Serbs, and we want to be viewed that way by those who do not live in Montenegro, but in Serbia, Republika Srpska or dispersion", said Mandic.
He also sent a message that he believed that in the future it could be considered that it would not be a gathering of only, as he said, two states...
Perić: The President of the Assembly should represent diversity
One of the founders of Preokret Srdjan Peric said that Mandić is the President of the Parliament of Montenegro and accordingly, his every speech is primarily a representation of the highest legislative chamber.
"If it's hard for him to live with that fact, he can resign and then represent the interests of the party whose president he is as a deputy to the extent he finds it appropriate. He is at the head of the house of representatives, I emphasize the house of representatives, where the deputies sit, that is, citizens who are sent from all citizens, very different in politics but also in terms of identity, religion and any other sense. When he presents himself as the president of the Assembly, which he is, then he should represent precisely all these differences".
Perić pointed out that Mandić, as an experienced politician, is aware of this, but he has decided that the interests of the party and the part of the community to which he belongs come before the interests of the entire community.
"So, primarily partial interest".
Miscalculation of the immutability of government in Serbia
Stojiljković said, "To the news, the whole story about the All-Serbian Assembly, the prayers and the assembly symphony, with the presence and blessing of the church, has the purpose of orchestrating and adding some monarchical grace and election to the president of Serbia, who is announced as the leader of all Serbs."
"Declarations full of symbolism and concern for unity and preservation, poorly conceal the fact that Vučić will encourage and limit Dodik and the story of disunification and keep in reserve the dangerous story of redrawing the borders and the Serbian world. "Serbia is too small for his ambitions."
Stojiljković assessed that the presence of Mandić at such celebrations and parades as the President of the Parliament of Montenegro and making statements on its behalf is completely unacceptable.
"Consequently, I expect that such a position will enjoy less and less support among those citizens of Montenegro who identify themselves as Serbs. I hope that they have no hidden interest in keeping the Serbian political and national corps in the position of copus separatum, of which they are then, God-given representatives. In any case, a wrong calculation that counts on the immutability of the government in Serbia".
Perić said that he decides who goes where, but also that the political interpretation of activities when you perform one of the key state functions is different than when you are not.
"Unfortunately, since 2020, the new Montenegrin statesmen have not made a name for themselves in building a non-inferior relationship with the President of Serbia. If we put aside the current prime minister, where it is still early for that kind of assessment, maybe it is Zdravko Krivokapic, consciously or not, possibly the only one who did not have a strong need to please Mr. Vučić".
He said that people in the highest state positions are essentially holding official functions "that they partially or fully had in the past, for example Peter I i Peter II who never showed that kind of subordination”.
"Thus, the criticism that we are a mass-dominated, colonial state and the like, which the officials of the new government directed at the previous one, falls into the water, because they now agree to be in a position where they even justify themselves for the views of a part of the Montenegrin public. You represent all the deputies who have the opportunity to be elected by all citizens, and then you suddenly complain about those you represent to the leadership of another country".
Perić said that it is true that they, like everyone else, have the right to their identity, as well as to their political beliefs and aspirations, but with this attitude, they neither protect the credibility of the state nor work to unify Montenegrin society, which has been divided along different lines for at least three decades.
"The previous government is responsible for the earlier division of the community, and they are responsible for this. They could show that they will be different in the model of state management - that would be their true historical achievement. In this way, they are only pushing the identity pendulum in one direction - which has been seen so many times in Montenegro and which ends up with the same pendulum moving to the other side after some time".
Đukić: Supporting the wrong project
Retired diplomat and former ambassador of Serbia in Belarus and Bulgaria, Srećko Đukić, said that the heavy shadow of responsibility falls on the Montenegrin officials present at that parliament, who "abused their state functions to support a wrong project".
"They were present in that capacity, not in the capacity of the Serbian people".
Đukić said that the games continue in Belgrade without stopping and that this could be one of the many evaluations of the "vasar called by the presumptuous name of the All-Serbian Assembly".
"One people, one parliament, one faith, one will, one leader, one ideology... There is no room for dissenters, for non-believers, for opposition in any sense. In such an environment, the comrades-in-arms forged an outrageously long omnibus resolution, a declaration, a 'new letter', with which they tried to justify everything that cannot be justified, what they did, and they did a lot of bad things only in the 1990s, and to declare themselves new apostles, deities".
Đukić asked where is the constitutional and legal basis for such big things that the All-Serbian Parliament has put before one people.
"A Serb can only be one who writes in Cyrillic, who is a believer in the Serbian Orthodox Church, who is devoted to religious education, who shares the beliefs of the Serbian Danga, water to water, fire to fire... But that is why there is no place in the All-Serbian Parliament for those who feel and they write like Serbs, but they don't point it out, they don't beat their heroic chests with their fists that they are Serbs so that it echoes all the way to the flat Kosovo fields, who as citizens live in the 21st century and respect the church, they don't have to go to church, because they are atheists, agnostics , they speak and write English for example, but they feel like Serbs. After all, the Serbian leader himself has repeatedly stated that he is not a believer. Now, it would be time to introduce some measure here as well: what is the minimum Orthodox faith for someone to be a Serb?".
Đukić assessed that "Serbs from Montenegro" helped many times in shaping the Serbian present, but hopefully not the future, as well as in reshaping the past.
"They are not doing it for the sake of Serbia, for sure. They always liked Dedinje to climb Cetinje. That's how it was and that's how it will be, from ancient times until the Chetnik duke Mandić".
Remembering Milošević and SANA
Srećko Đukić said that the Declaration, adopted without a vote against, was accepted and introduced into political waters like those of the nineties under Milošević's parliaments.
"Let us remind you that they were preceded by the 'famous' Memorandum of the most famous Serbian heads (SANU) eager to solve the Serbian national question, as if it was solved once and for all."
He pointed out that the Declaration of Reality "is nothing but a new Serbian national program that Montenegro must enter into first of all".
"Because as the unique leader of the unique people said, there is also an example of how to do it: the example of North Macedonia." The only thing that would be smart and valuable to bring "in Piedmont" and announce "to the city and the world" is a general call for permanent reconciliation, lasting peace and all-round cooperation of all the peoples of yesterday - this includes the peoples of the SFRY.
Perić: Why does he agree to such an inferior position?
Perić said that state office always gives a certain political power and that he is not aware of anyone not using it for political promotion.
"How good it is for the general interest is another story. However, this is really a question of measure. I don't understand why he agrees to such an inferior position”.
He said that at the meeting he did not notice a significant part of the representatives of the political scene from Serbia itself, so there is a dilemma whether in the political sense it is a national project supported by the vast majority of the political community or exclusively the government.
"If it is closer to the second option, or it is beyond doubt, then in addition to the national one, you also have a strong narrow political moment - to influence the party scene as well".
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