The fact that parties qualify decisions they do not like as attacks on the ethnic communities they represent is a sign that the nation has become a "cloak" for the parties, protecting them from facing real problems, or from taking responsibility for them.
With these words, the interlocutors of "Vijesti" explain why political actors are increasingly making such moves.
The last such case occurred recently, when some Albanian parties protested the announcement of a new tender for the lease of beaches, saying that they would not allow the interests of Albanians in Montenegro to be jeopardized.
Civic activist Stefan Djukic He told "Vijesti" that he is not sure whether parties are making such moves more often now, but that he thinks it is a "practiced tactic" that they have been using for years, even decades.
According to him, they do this so that they don't have to face the "real issue, whatever it is", but rather, he says, they are trying to make themselves and the people they share an ethnic affiliation with - "victims of some conspiracy and evil intent", by cloaking them in collectivization.
"That way, it is possible to 'fight' against everything, and never really take responsibility for any problem," said Đukić.
Director of the Center for Investigative Reporting of Montenegro (CIN-CG) Milka Tadic Mijović, she stated that, in this sense, the nation has remained only as a "cloak" for the parties. She claims that they do not work for the common good, that is, that in matters of interest groups, castes, for whom personal and party benefits are above all else.
"These groups, which are currently ruling, have no intention of changing the wrong system, they do not know how to start the economy, reform institutions, fix the catastrophic situation in the judiciary... But there are flags, language and chasing away the imaginary enemy," Tadić Mijović told "Vijesti".
A month ago, after announcing a new tender for the lease of beaches, the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) announced that it would support any initiative that guarantees "fair and transparent management of beaches, protecting the local economy and preventing any attempt to jeopardize the interests of Albanians in this region."
"We will not allow the welfare of our citizens to be called into question through unilateral policies and irresponsible statements. Ulcinj is not the property of 'Morski dobro'. Ulcinj belongs to the people of Ulcinj," they said, among other things.
Leader of Ulcinj Genzi Nimanbeg (Forca) said on Thursday that the activity regarding the lease of beaches could also be understood as an "attack on our way of life."
"Both human and minority rights and conventions are such that we must be included not only in the use of language and national symbols, but also in the economy," he stated in the show "Boje jutra" on Television "Vijesti".
For a number of beaches on Ulcinj's Velika Plaza, the highest financial bids were made by the company "Eagle Hills", a private construction company from Abu Dhabi, specializing in construction and real estate investments. For years, the tenants of the beaches in the southernmost Montenegrin municipality were Ulcinj residents.
One example of qualifying a decision that political actors do not like as an attack on an ethnic community is the recent case of the dismissal of Biljana Vučurović from the position of principal of a Podgorica high school. Parties from the former Democratic Front (DF) called the demands for her dismissal "Serbophobia", saying that the real motive for the dismissal was that Vučurović was a Serb.
"Interest groups close to the opposition, or rather the former regime, whose goal is to eliminate members of the Serbian people from the field of education again, have long stopped talking about the predator and the victim and have directed all their malicious power towards the director... If structures close to the former regime think that by creating such narratives they will try to bring back an atmosphere of open Serbophobia through the back door in the future, they should know that the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) and the coalition 'For the Future of Montenegro' will know how to respond appropriately," the NSD announced in mid-January.
Minister of Education, Science and Innovation Anđela Jakšić Stojanović, then relieved Vučurović of her duties, at the suggestion of the Education Inspectorate. That institution assessed that Vučurović had violated regulations and failed to adequately respond to the case of sexual harassment of a former high school student.
Head of Parliament Andrija Mandic (NSD) proposed Vučurović as an advisor a few days ago, which was formalized three days ago in the highest legislative house.
Similar moves by the DF and Albanian parties have been made by the Bosniak Party (BS) on several occasions. Among other things, in early February 2023, when the Parliament approved a proposal for candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court among whom there were no Bosniaks, it stated that this was another “in a series of bad messages that the parliamentary majority has been sending to Bosniaks in Montenegro since August 30, 2020, and the continuation of the ethnic cleansing of institutions from Bosniaks.”
"A member of the Bosniak people cannot be a member of the Judicial Council, cannot enter the Prosecutorial Council, cannot be elected as a judge of the Supreme and Appellate Courts, and as of today, officially cannot enter the Constitutional Court. This attitude towards members of the Bosniak people is a defeat for a civil and multiethnic Montenegro," they stated at the time.
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