The fact that some parties recently accepted to be in power with each other even though they claimed that they would not, accusing each other of various inactions, as well as the fact that after the reconstruction of the Government some politicians criticized what they advocated during its formation, is a sign that political the actors do not care at all what the citizens will think about their moves.
So a sociologist Biljana Maslovaric interprets what happened last week, during the reconstruction of the Government Milojko Spajić, the myth about the principled nature of Montenegrin parties and politicians has been debunked for the umpteenth time.
She told "Vijesta" that the parties explicitly show that they are not concerned about what the citizens will think of their decisions, and that they properly underestimate those who elected them, that is, they show an underestimating attitude towards them.
"Citizens, on the other hand, are clearly not sufficiently aware that, when they vote, they take into account the parties. We, in fact, do not vote, but are still voters - the vast majority of us just vote. Therefore, it is obvious that as a society we need a kind of emancipation and political knowledge about what it means to vote and what is the degree of responsibility - both of those who vote and of those who are elected," Maslovarić assessed.
The inconsistency of parties and politicians could be seen in at least four examples, which were followed by the mostly unforced justifications of some of those who could be blamed for it.
The first refers to the oath of the leader of the Democratic People's Party (DNP) Milan Knežević from March that he will not support the entry of the Bosniak Party (BS) into the executive power if it votes for the removal of the head of the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) Andrije Mandić from the position of President of the Assembly.
"If the Bosniak Party...votes for the dismissal of Andrija Mandić, we as the Democratic People's Party will be against the reconstruction that you will enter into." That's how God helped me and Saint Vasilije Ostroški", he said at the time.
BS voted for the dismissal of Mandić, but he was not dismissed. However, this was not an obstacle for Knežević to support the entry of the party seven days ago, despite the oath Ervin Ibrahimović in the executive power. On the same day, Knežević's DNP and Mandić's NSD, which until then had been parliamentary support for Spajić's cabinet, became part of the government.
During the weekend, in an interview with Belgrade's "Novosti", the leader of the DNP said that it was true that he had sworn that he would be against the entry of BS into the government "if they do not cross paths with the DPS (Democratic Party of Socialists)", but that they have "a firm word from colleague Ibrahimović that his party will dissolve the coalition with DPS in Bijelo Polje until the budget is adopted in that municipality".
"Otherwise, Prime Minister Spajić and the existing parliamentary majority will launch an initiative to dismiss ministers from the Bosniak Party. That was enough for me to vote for the entry of BS, because I believe that I Christianly gave them the opportunity to cross paths with Love (Djukanovic) party, without betraying any of my convictions or breaking my oath...", stated Knežević, who for years criticized BS for cooperating with DPS.
Another example concerns the messages of a member of parliament and a BS official Kenane Strujić Harbić, who at the end of 2022 spoke rather harshly in the parliament about the former Democratic Front (DF), which NSD and DNP were part of. She is in a controversy with the then deputy of NSD and the newly elected Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property Slaven Radunović, about the fact that there are no Bosniaks among the candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court, said that she asked him "how can we trust you" (without specifying what this refers to), and that he replied - "take your word for it".
"And I note from here - when we took your word for it in the nineties, we ended up in graves. We ended up in the tombs. We won't do that," Strujić Harbić said then.
She has repeatedly criticized the former DF, with which her BS has been a coalition partner since last week, saying, among other things, that the alliance of Mandić and Knežević's parties is the embodiment of "anti-European, retrograde and Great Serbian politics".
Because of its decision to accept entry into power with NSD and DNP, BS is the target of criticism from a part of the domestic and regional public. At the parliamentary session where the government was reconstructed, the opposition said that BS was an "air bag" for the entry of the former Front into power, and that Ibrahimović's party entered into an alliance with people who consider war criminals heroes and who deny genocide in Srebrenica.
At the session, Strujić Harbić responded to criticism by saying that "until two days ago, she knew what the individuals on her left (NSD and DNP MPs) thought of her", and that "as of today (Tuesday), she knows what they want for her from her right", disclaiming that this does not apply to everyone, but alluding to DPS MPs.
"Mangupis can't stick cockades on me from keyboards as much as a Bosnian woman can suffer blows," she said.
BS and former DF each have five seats in Spajić's cabinet.
A third example of possible inconsistency concerns the Democrats' request Alekse Bečić, from the end of June, that the "possible participation" of BS in the government can be discussed only after that party dissolves the coalition with DPS in Bijelo Polje, forms a government in that municipality with a majority from the state level, and "intersects with the former system ".
At the time, that party said that they were opposed to the entry of BS into power because that party had not yet severed ties with the former DPS regime, which had not condemned the numerous wrongdoings of that system and organized criminal groups, etc.
When asked if they believe that they acted unprincipledly by accepting BS's entry into the Government, without fulfilling the conditions they had set out, the Democrats answered in the negative.
“Absolutely not. It was our request to dissolve the BS-DPS coalition in Bijelo Polje that was accepted by the entire parliamentary majority, specifically by the parties that constituted the 44th Government of Montenegro almost nine months ago. "Also, the aforementioned parties have jointly committed themselves that, if the coalition is not dissolved by the time the budget for 2025 is adopted, they will end cooperation with parties that have disagreements with the DPS at the local level," the spokesperson for the Democrats told "Vijesta" Mitar Paunović.
The fourth example concerns the messages of the head of state and a former official of the ruling Europe Now Movement (PES). Jakov Milatović who announced on the day of the reconstruction of the executive power that Montenegro is "a victim of the most primitive political trade and irresponsibility that the prime minister continuously demonstrates towards running the country."
He wrote on the "Iks" social network that "non-transparency, unprincipledness, partitocracy, the collapse of institutions and trade in state interests reached their peak with the voting of the most cumbersome Government in the history of Montenegro", whose goal, he said, "is the protection of individual interests, not the betterment of our society and the European path of the state".
Last year, during the period of government formation, Milatović criticized Spajić for the initial decision not to include the former DF in the executive branch, and then, after the participation of that alliance in the government was agreed, he said that it was "not good" that he would not be in it. BS.
"Vijesti" expects answers from Milatović's cabinet to the questions whether the president was unprincipled when he criticized the reconstruction last week, bearing in mind that last year he advocated the entry of DF and BS into it, what has changed in the meantime, and now has a different attitude, and does he still stand by his assessment from November that he is convinced that Mandić shares his (Milatović's) and Spajić's vision "on the European and Euro-Atlantic path of Montenegro".
Through the reconstruction, the government got five new ministries, three new vice presidents and a minister without a portfolio. In total, it consists of the prime minister, 25 ministers and seven vice-presidents (two of whom are also ministers), and a minister without portfolio. Total - 32 members.
As Knežević said: We can't even go to Russia with Ibrahimović
At the session in March where the vote was taken on Mandić's dismissal, Knežević and Ibrahimović had a polemic. The BS leader asked if it was a good solution that Mandić, "a man who does not recognize the sovereignty and integrity of two neighboring states", should lead the Assembly, saying that "today we have those who fought wholeheartedly against the EU and NATO, against citizens of Montenegro, and now their mouths are full of Europeanism and NATOism".
After that, Knežević said that he was asking the ambassadors of Western countries "whether we can go to Europe with this kind of narrative, with this kind of backward, hardened ideology that looks at a form of medieval, tribal, I would even say cannibalism, which is contained in the reasoning that is exclusively anti-Serb, anti-democratic...?".
"Can we go to Europe with these people? I think we can't even go to Russia with these people...", he said.
After Ibrahimović's remarks that Mandić received in the parliament the president of Republika Srpska (RS) Milorad Dodik, who does not recognize the genocide in Srebrenica, and that Yugoslavia was "led by the convicted criminal (Slobodan) Milošević or Biljana Plavšić, the head of the DNP replied that he would not be in the Government if Ibrahimović enters it "after these anti-Serb statements and qualifications".
"Enter the government, good luck to you, but I will not support your entry after what you said not only for Andrija Mandić, but for the entire Serbian people... And you expect me to accept the explanation that we are the worst nation in the world, that we do not have the right to the flag, that I have no right to welcome anyone from the RS and Serbia, and you want me to tell you - here is the red carpet, enter the Government, and continue to slap us and hit us..." he stated.
Maslovarić: Matrices will remain the same even after 2020.
Biljana Maslovarić says that she does not know how long the current phase of activities of Montenegrin parties and politicians will last, but that she thinks that the citizens will punish them.
He says that society needs changes.
"The Montenegrin society is crying out for new parties or for the redesign of the existing ones because we have become hostages of bad politicians. The matrices remained the same even after the change of government in 2020...", she assesses.
In the elections held on August 30, 2020, the three-decade DPS regime was replaced.
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