The president of the Social Democrats (SD) and one of the leaders of the European Union, Damir Šehović, informed Prime Minister Milojko Spajić that the SD will not attend the meeting regarding the "Barometar 26" platform.
He believes that the document omits essential answers to European challenges, but also serves as a tool for political reckoning within the parliamentary majority.
"After a careful analysis of the content of the document, we inform you that we will not respond to it, because we believe that the Platform does not meet the basic criteria that would qualify it as a sufficiently high-quality framework for the gathering of all political and social structures around the European path of Montenegro", stated Šehović, as it says in the announcement.
In his reply, he also said that the impression is that the document, instead of offering concrete and measurable solutions for the significant challenges facing Montenegro on its European path, contains "a series of general phrases and general assessments" that do not address the key obstacles in the process of European integration. .
"Such an approach does not contribute to the building of a real political consensus, but can be seen as a political gesture that has no real ambition to solve our essential European challenges, but would rather be said to serve a political reckoning within the parliamentary majority itself. Within which, by the way, there is also no agreement regarding this document".
Šehović said that the political culprit for challenges in European integration should not be sought in the parliamentary opposition, but in the ruling structure, especially in the part of the parliamentary majority, "for which the prime minister himself bears not only functional but also political responsibility".
"That part of the government, despite its declarative commitment to the European path, with its actions and narrative, persistently demonstrates an anti-European and anti-Western character, damages relations with individual member states of the European Union and other neighboring, traditionally friendly countries, denies the anti-fascist tradition and openly glorifies war criminals, and almost every day it raises questions that contribute to new identity divisions and the spread of inter-national and inter-religious hatred, which distances us from the basic values of the European Union and endangers the painstakingly created civic character state and society. For decades, those forces showed a clear anti-Western orientation, which has not changed even today, despite the small ones, i.e. politically cheap rhetorical adjustments", explained Šehović.
He says that "only a true and credible pro-European majority" can speed up and bring to an end the process of European integration and assessed that the current political structure "does not have the capacity, nor the confidence to lead Montenegro towards the European Union".
"The Social Democrats of Montenegro and our partners from the European Union were the founders of European values in Montenegro back in the nineties, when the idea of a European future for our country was unacceptable to all other political actors. Thanks to our vision and perseverance, the European agenda has become an integral part of state policy. This historical responsibility obliges us to approach every issue related to the European path of our country extremely seriously and responsibly".
He said that this decision represents a conscious rejection of initiatives that, as he said, have no real strength to contribute to the European progress of Montenegro.
"Our decision not to participate in this process is the result of consistency in the defense of European values and a conscious refusal to support initiatives that, in our opinion, have no real power to contribute to the European progress of Montenegro," Šehović wrote in his official reply to Spajić.
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