The demarcation of new municipalities with the Capital is going inappropriately slowly and the state must have a clear position and indisputable records - cadastral data, while the budget is an ongoing issue every year and there is no need or sense to make these issues mutually conditional.
This is what the executive director of the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) assessed for "Vijesti". Marija Popović Kalezić, commenting on the recent statement of the Democratic People's Party (DNP) leader and MP Milan Knežević that the deputies of that party will not vote for the state budget proposal if the delimitation of Zeta and Podgorica is not completed by then in the undisputed part.
"That what is indisputable belongs to Zeta, in the territorial and administrative sense - the Airport, part of the Plantaž, Morača river beds, water sources, city-building land. Even Podgorica does not dispute that, to rewrite Zeta so that Zeta could function as a normal local self-government, as well as all local self-governments in Montenegro," said Knežević recently in the program "Free Zone" on TV Prva.
Zeta, a former municipality within the Capital City, received the status of a municipality in August 2022, when the Parliament adopted amendments to the law on territorial organization and the Capital City, a few months before the local elections.
In March of this year, the government took the position that the delimitation of Tuzi and the capital should be completed first, and then the delimitation of Podgorica and the youngest municipality - Zeta should be started. The demarcation between Tuzi and Podgorica has not been completed, and arbitration was cited as the last possibility. Tuzi became independent in 2019.
It is not clear whether the delimitation can be completed before the vote on the budget, which should be adopted by the end of the year.
The adoption of the budget in the parliament does not depend on the four MPs of Knežević's DNP, because without them there are still 49 hands left in the parliamentary majority to vote on the proposal submitted by the Government to the Assembly, and no one else has announced that they will not vote for the budget.
Knežević said that the disputed part where Zeta disputes with Podgorica, and concerns the industrial zone around the aluminum plant, "let it go to arbitration."
"We accepted that it will go to arbitration, but we want the undisputed part to end, because the people of Zeć cannot be held hostage by any bureaucrat, neither in the Government, nor in Podgorica, nor anywhere else, because they did not deserve to be held hostage by anyone," Knežević said. .
Popović Kalezić assessed that it is inappropriate to mix issues that are not directly related.
"The politics of some form of blackmail is not the way to a solution, but political marketing and work on political positioning," she said.
Popović Kalezić emphasized that the relations between Podgorica and its until yesterday city municipalities, and now independent units of local self-government, must be the best possible:
"Demarcation must not be the primary point, but institutional cooperation and the development of an inseparable space inextricably connected to each other".
She pointed out that the administrative division is only a landmark, and in this particular case, citizens need quality local service.
"All those who insist on borders fundamentally do not understand the importance of local communities and the immediacy of democracy that can be realized in them, and it is not realized precisely thanks to politicians and their narrow political interests...", Popović Kalezić assessed.
The Municipality of Zeta previously announced that they demanded that the existing Law on Territorial Organization be respected and that the settlements that according to that regulation belong to Zeta be transferred to that municipality, and that belong to Podgorica remain in the capital, and that the disputed part - the cadastral municipality of Dajbaba go to arbitration. Zeta, as previously announced, belongs to the cadastral municipalities defined by the Law on Territorial Organization and the Decision on Settlements - Mataguži, Vranjina, Golubovci, Bijelo Polje, Mahala, Botun, Cijevna, Vukovci and Gostilj.
Knežević said that he informed his colleagues at the collegium of the Parliament of Montenegro about the decision not to vote for the budget proposal, stating that he announced it back in August.
Knežević: We got a municipality without opportunities for development
Knežević said that they received a freak municipality without demarcation, without resources and without opportunities for development:
"With the superhuman efforts of the people in the municipality, we laid serious foundations, and I hope that the next two years will show what the Municipality of Zeta will grow into in terms of economy, economy, culture and sports. It is not fair that our government, which I support, will not demarcate Zeta and Podgorica, at least in the part that is indisputable," Knežević said.
He said that the auxiliary facilities in the rural homes are located in Podgorica and that is why they cannot be rented out:
"If someone wants to renovate them in Zeta, we cannot issue it to them because it is located in Podgorica, and Podgorica will not sign it," Knežević said.
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