The leader of the Democratic People's Party (DNP) Milan Knežević refused the invitation of the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović to attend the meeting to which the leaders of all parliamentary political parties were invited.
Knežević stated in the press release that Milatović had a falling out "which I cannot ignore".
"I thank you for the invitation to attend the ceremony on the occasion of receiving the IBAR, but I inform you that I will not attend it, due to our increasingly pronounced differences that call into question the human partnership we built with you during the second round of the presidential elections. I will remind you that together with the current president of the Assembly, Andrija Mandić, led an intensive campaign on behalf of the coalition of the former DF, in order to be elected president of Montenegro. everything that happened after that, which refers to your views on foreign and domestic policy, is in complete conflict with mine, but more importantly, with the views of those citizens who supported you at my invitation to the second round of presidential elections. Your latest media reactions, colored by double standards, in relation to the Resolution in Srebrenica and the Resolution on the genocide in the camp system in Jasenovac, Dachau and Mauthausen, represent only the culmination of our complacency, which I cannot ignore," said Knežević.
He added that "it would not be moral" if, after several of his public criticisms directed at Milatović, starting with the meeting with the archbishop of Cyprus, through not agreeing to DNP candidate Dragan Bojović being appointed as ambassador to Russia, to "double standards" in relation on the two resolutions on Srebrenica and Jasenovac, "whereby you directly contributed to the deterioration of relations with our closest Serbia", I appear at the cocktail party he is organizing.
"And to pretend that nothing has happened. Unfortunately, a lot has happened in this one year of your mandate, which prevents me from being part of tomorrow's performance as if everything is in the best order," the announcement reads.
Knežević also states that he believes that Montenegro must not be a "hostage of the conflict" between Milatović and Spajić, in which, as DNP leader Milatović asserts, "the Vijesti concern and the media are under the control of the DPS as media logistics, which worries and calls into question your independence in making decisions and publicly communicating your views".
"So much emphasized vanity, intolerance, narcissism, is not good even in a company in bankruptcy, and not among the highest officials of a country that aspires to be the first and next member of the EU. I am telling you all this because I am not ready to be a part of either Spajić's or your political The party I lead has a clear ideological and state-building path from which it will not deviate either because of you or anyone else. We can build partnership relationships, but never in such a way that you, or anyone else, can think of using us as a means of calculation for supremacy in power institutions. Mr. President, when you show an essential interest in improving our relations, I am ready to get involved in this and similar activities that you organize. Until then, as during the time of your predecessor, I will not respond to any state or other ceremony that you will organize," Knežević's statement reads.
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