Smugglers, people from Bemak, Sudan, then hugs - how the newly minted coalition partners "honored" each other

DRita Abazović is a cigarette smuggler, Nebojsa Medojevic is the spokesperson of the company "Bemax", Milojko Spajic he illegally appointed the chief of police, whose actual appointment actually took place in a Podgorica bar, Jakov Milatovic he spat in the face of his voters and showed that he does not have the capacity of a statesman...

This is just a part of the harsh accusations and evaluations exchanged between the newly minted coalition partners - constituents of the two newly formed alliances that will participate in the upcoming elections in Podgorica, that is, in Kotor and Budva - in the past three years.

The first, which was presented on Tuesday by Head of State Milatović, consists of the Movement for Podgorica (PzPG), which is close to the president, Abazović's Civic Movement (GP) URA and Medojević's Movement for Change (PzP).

The second coalition, made official the same day later, was formed by Prime Minister Spajić's Movement Europe Now (PES) and Deputy Prime Minister Democratic Montenegro (Democrats). Alekse Bečić. That alliance, unlike the first one, will participate not only in the elections in the capital, but also in coastal municipalities.

The fact that politicians exchange serious accusations and big words, and then cooperate as if nothing had happened - is not new either in Montenegro or in the world. However, such examples are becoming more and more frequent on the domestic political scene, so the question is - is anyone's word worth anything anymore, when everyone is talking about everyone, only to subsequently claim that it is not important after all?

Recalling earlier such cases, a civil activist Stefan Djukic tells "Vijesti" that such behavior of politicians is not a surprise and that what they are saying is a kind of performance, acting, masquerade, which they forget when it is in their interest.

"There is no doubt that it is opportune for PES and the Democrats, but also for Milatović and GP URA, to appear together in the elections. They have good reasons to believe that both will achieve - if not a synergistic effect, then at least mathematically, i.e. that they will not lose any percentage of the votes they would otherwise have on their own. Everything they said about each other falls into the water and is forgotten, because the most important thing is to get another mandate or, if one enters the government, some official position", he assesses.

How "lost" partners were found

And the new coalition allies talked about each other all kinds of things.

Milatović at the beginning of 2022, before and shortly after Abazović's party with the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) overthrew the government Zdravka Krivokapića, accused the leader of GP URA that "the seat is important" and that he "wants to have absolute power in Montenegro". In that government, Milatović was the Minister of Economic Development, and Abazović was the Deputy Prime Minister.

The head of state then said that Abazović and GP URA "betrayed the electoral will" and the victory achieved in the elections on August 30, 2020, that that party is the only one questioning the economic program "Europe Now", that it became a strategic partner of the then leader of DPS Milo Đukanović, "who is one of the creators of the complete political uncertainty currently in Montenegro", that Abazović abuses state resources and "protects himself as a mandate abroad"...

Because of Abazović's party's announcement that it will overthrow Krivokapić's cabinet, protests were held in Podgorica attended by Milatović and Spajić, who was then the Minister of Finance and Social Welfare. In those days, Milatović invited Abazović to a TV duel.

"The biggest regret I have is that the Deputy Prime Minister and the leader of GP URA did himself great harm with the moves he made in the previous months, and I feel that I have lost a permanent partner with whom I thought that this Montenegro would be better," said Milatović in the show "Clearly" on TV "Vijesti", the night before the vote of no confidence in Krivokapić's government.

The President of Montenegro continued to criticize Abazović even after the President of GP URA became Prime Minister, forming a government with DPS. Milatović called that executive authority "unknown", its members "charlatans", and Abazović a "relaxed prime minister".

Critical assessments came from Milatović even after he was elected head of state in April 2023, and one of them referred to Abazović's plan to travel to New York with his delegation for the session of the UN General Assembly in the fall of last year, although it was agreed that Montenegro is led by the president. Milatović then said that he was "patient" with Abazović while they agreed on the way to represent the country at the session, but also "unpleasantly surprised" when he "nominated himself as the leader of the delegation".

Abazović and GP URA did not answer Milatović often or too harshly, but there were name-callings. Some of them referred to allusions that Milatović did not criticize DPS and Đukanović before August 30, and that the president represents a "sudden appearance" in the Montenegrin political sky.

Unlike GP URA, Milatović was not spared by his other new coalition ally - Medojević, whose accusations and evaluations ranged from the fact that the former minister ("for whom no one voted") led Montenegro to "bankruptcy of public finances" with Spajić ", to the point that the head of state "spat in the face of 90 percent of his voters" after being elected to that position and that he "does not know what the democratic legitimacy and state dignity of the president are".

Medojević made his last statement after Milatović stated that it is not realistic to expect Montenegro to withdraw the recognition of Kosovo's independence, and added that he will follow the Western policy towards Russia.

"The president of a sovereign state must at all times protect the interests of the state and the people, and not be a henchman of the global deep state and a representative of other people's interests," Medojević wrote on Facebook at the beginning of April last year.

Milatović: Nothing is black and white

When asked how he and the coalition partners got over what they were talking about each other and whether he does not think that, bearing this in mind, their coalition is inconsistent and insincere, Milatović answered "Vijesti" that, "both in life and in in politics, things are never black and white".

Especially not, as he said, in the period after 2020, when Montenegro is "witnessing the intense political processes of late democracy". In these processes, he says, he was always guided by principles - "what is best at a given moment for the state and citizens".

"As then, so today - I chose not to turn my head to the other side in the face of bad practices, be they at the local or state level, and to fight for Podgorica, which will have a solidary, efficient and transparent public administration, fully focused on to citizens. With some of the partners with whom I am entering the upcoming elections, at one point I was on opposite sides, seeing differently the way Montenegro should go. Today, we see it in the same way, and I don't see anything objectionable in that," says Milatović.

He states that the political past of him and his allies was not only marked by disagreements.

“Mr. Abazović supported me as a minister in the Assembly. Also my candidacy for president, and at the moment when I won the elections in Podgorica, although I didn't have to, I invited GP URA to be part of the city government, because then, as now, I appreciated that Luka Rakcevic (holder of the coalition list) an honest politician and a true fighter who can contribute to the development of the capital. Therefore, my support for him, as well as for the people from PzPG, who campaigned with me to the greatest extent for the previous local elections, is not inconsistent, nor insincere", said Milatović, adding that it is "an expression of the desire and need to stop frivolous and the irresponsible attitude of the current authorities, both at the local and state level, and return the country to the course of foreign policy and economic progress".

The leader of the PzP spoke much harsher about Abazović and GP URA, whom he accused, among other things, of participating in cigarette smuggling, that the former prime minister is part of a cartel that also smuggles cocaine, that he was "smuggling with clans", that " one miserable lying spider and mafia poodle"...

Abazović responded to such accusations by saying that Medojević "became the spokesman for Bemax", a company that the head of GP URA linked to cigarette smuggling.

“It became strange to me. Read what Bemax propaganda writes and what Medojević says, and if you find a difference - I'm ready to say that it's not true," Abazović said in November 2022.

Bosniak: Any sharp qualifications in the heat of battle

"Vijesti" also asked Medojević about the (un)principled nature of the newly formed coalition, but the PzP leader directed the paper to an official of that party. Branko Bošnjak, who replied that for years they have had "extraordinary cooperation" with GP URA and Rakčević, and in the current convocation of the Podgorica Assembly, also with PzPG.

"We shared the same vision of the development of the city, which resulted in the signing of a memorandum on closer cooperation... So there is no question of insincerity and inconsistency here, on the contrary - because our programs and goals are almost identical, and we were in the same front of all these 30 years... We partially differed only in the methods and dynamics of how to make the transition from an autocratic, criminal regime to a free and prosperous Montenegro. In that difference, there were also dissonant tones...", she said, adding that "it is a statesman's responsibility to rise above all political disputes and stand up for the country".

Bošnjak states that Medojević is recognized as someone who "persistently and unwaveringly points out and fights against corruption and crime, who has a zero threshold of tolerance towards these scourges and who advocates for very radical measures when it comes to this".

"There were, in the heat of the political struggle, very sharp qualifications regarding some cases that ultimately received an epilogue before the Special Prosecutor's Office. But the presumption of innocence should be respected, and all political actors, regardless of party, often forget that in the midst of political upheaval," she adds.

GP URA did not answer how, when negotiating the coalition, he went over what Milatović and Medojević said about that party and Abazović, which included serious accusations, and whether they therefore think that their association is insincere.

Sudan in the Government

When it comes to the coalition of PES and the Democrats, those two parties had much fewer disagreements than the constituents of the other alliance, but they were much more serious - due to the fact that these parties are the key actors of the government.

Their relations were "strained" due to staffing in the security sector, after they requested urgent changes in that part of the system from PES at the beginning of last December, which the Democrats opposed. The smoldering conflict culminated in early March, when the Government, on the illegal proposal of the Prime Minister and leader of the PES, elected Spajić Aleksandar Radović for acting head of the Police Administration (UP).

A part of the Democrats' officials said at the time that the government's crisis had arisen, "which was caused by a brutal violation of the law, by exceeding the limits of authority and, for the first time in the history of Montenegro, by taking over the powers that belong to the Minister of Internal Affairs (their official Danilo Šaranović). Due to the election of Radović, the Democrats sued the Government to the Administrative Court, which rejected the lawsuit as illegal, and promised to support Spajić's cabinet until the report on the fulfillment of the interim benchmarks in negotiations with the EU (IBAR) was received.

In addition, deputy and general secretary of the Democrats Boris Bogdanovic, he claimed that the Minister of Police rejected the candidates for the acting head of UP who were "recruited by some party officials in a not so modest society, in a not so unknown bar in Podgorica", and that one bar was "the place where the acting director of the UP was actually and essentially elected ".

Criticism of the executive power and PES officials was also held by the holder of the list of Democrats in the May elections in Budva. Đorđe Zenović, who said at the beginning of July that Spajić's government is the worst in the recent history of parliamentarism. He said that one of the key reasons for this "title" is its "relation to the area in Budva, the finishing of the unfinished business arrangements of the DPS, and the fact that this unfortunate majority gave birth to three characters such as Janko Odović, Vasilije Carapić i Siniša Minic". The day before yesterday, the day after Spajić's and Bečić's parties made their cooperation official, Zenović left the Democrats, saying that he was not ready to make compromises to the detriment of Budva.

Despite all that, the Democrats remained in the Government and agreed to cooperate with PES in the capital and two coastal municipalities.

Bogdanović: National interest comes first

When asked by "Vijesti" whether the alliance between PES and the Democrats is unprincipled, Bogdanović replied that his party was one of the few that sincerely supported Krivokapić's government, in which some of the key positions were covered by the later founders of PES, that before and after its formation those parties had "very close cooperation, realized together numerous projects in the field of improving economic and social status, the rule of law and speeding up European integration", that they have very similar programs, that they are generationally close and that their strategic cooperation is very important for stability and progress of the state.

"If you look realistically and analyze which are the two political entities that have had the least misunderstandings, disagreements and passing by in their history - then they are definitely PES and the Democrats. Even when we disagreed, we didn't insult or slander each other. One different point of view related to the method of electing the acting director of the UP, we resolved in an institutional way, leaving the authorities to give the final legal judgments...", said Bogdanović.

He states that we should not forget that Montenegro "no longer lives in a time of dictatorship, but of democracy, where members of the Government have the right to an opinion, a different position and an institutional way to resolve open issues".

"On the other hand, when you look at the fact that there are many things that make us allies, many things that we have succeeded together, when you are aware that our strategic cooperation is very important for the stability of the political scene, the continuation of economic and social reforms, the fight against crime and the continuation of the European times, then it is clear that what unites you and what is the national interest is always in the first place", stated Bogdanović.

A part of the public felt that the Democrats were inconsistent when they agreed on a coalition with GP URA for last year's parliamentary elections, with whose leader they exchanged heavy accusations. Among other things, Abazović and his party claimed that the Democrats "want to ruin the resolution" of the case of the murder of the editor of the daily "Dan". Duško Jovanović, while the Democrats called Abazović a "blackmailed coward", demanding that he answer who offered him 30 million after the election on August 2020, 21 and for what.

Spajić's PES did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" regarding the alliance with the Democrats.

The elections in Podgorica and Kotor are scheduled for September 29, and those in Budva for November 17.

Đukić: No one punishes politicians for pre-election lies, let alone coalitions

Stefan Đukić says that he thinks that the inconsistency in the behavior of politicians is a good lesson for citizens.

According to him, when politicians whom the citizens sympathize with or who are close to them start calling each other names, say ugly words and present harsh qualifications, they either do not mean it that seriously or, if they do, they believe that it will be absolutely irrelevant to the citizens if they gave some political benefit.

When asked if politicians think that citizens do not remember what they said, the interlocutor says that he does not think that they underestimate citizens so much, but that they think that it is not important to citizens and that what is said in the campaign and outside it - "just daily distraction".

"They behave like entertainers, both in the Assembly and otherwise, so it is important to them that the average voter can say - 'How did he say it to him,' depending on what happened in the Assembly, at the press conference, etc.," states Đukić.

This, he adds, significantly reduces the responsibilities of politicians and their need for seriousness.

"No one will hold them to their word for anything, and no one has the ability, after all, to call them out for outright lying during pre-election promises. How will the choice of coalition partners be then...", concludes the interlocutor.

Bogdanović on Zenović: We wish him luck, we don't punish critics

Speaking about Đorđe Zenović, Bogdanović says that his former party colleague "always had and will have collegial and friendly respect and appreciation", and that his right and freedom to comment on social processes, criticize certain segments of the work of the Government or state authorities, always belong to the Democrats , and believes that PES "was experienced as part of the democratic maturation of our society".

"And the need to always hear and see everything, in order to improve things and be as good as possible. Critics are not punished in our parties. Of course, everyone has the right to their own choices and decisions, and we will always look at our colleague Zenović with friendly eyes, wishing him luck in all further private and professional challenges," says Bogdanović.