DPS President Danijel Živković said that he believes that his predecessor in that position, Milo Đukanović, did not commit anything that would bring him into the zone of criminal responsibility.
Pointing out that June 22nd, when the DPS celebrates Party Day, is approaching, Komnenić asked Živković "in what condition they are welcoming that date."
"We welcome this day as the most organized and strongest political entity in Montenegro. So, after 34 years since its establishment, today DPS is the strongest and most organized political entity in Montenegro. This is confirmed, among other things, by the results of the previously held local elections in eight municipalities," Živković replied.
"Just a quick reminder of those elections - so, a total of 300.000 voters in Montenegro had the right to vote. So, that's about half or a little more than half of the electorate in Montenegro. 176.000 voters exercised their right to vote in those elections, of which the Democratic Party of Socialists took 50.000 voters or, let's say, about 28 percent," he added.
As he pointed out, the research they are conducting shows that we have between 27 and 28 percent support.
"If we remember that we ran in the parliamentary elections in a coalition with the Social Democrats, the Democratic Union of Albanians, the Liberal Party, and then still as part of the Democratic Party of Socialists with Duško Marković, we can say that we had 20 percent support, and today it has grown to about 27-28 percent of the voting public's support, which means that we are gradually restoring the trust of the voting public and that this voting public speaks in the best way about the level of reforms within the DPS," said Živković.
Komnenić said that he did not want to argue about percentages, but that the strongest opposition party "still has coalition potential." He added that "the assessments of political competitors and political enemies that the DPS was consigned to political history in 2020 have not come true." "Do you owe that to disappointment in the liberators of August XNUMXth and the fact that they continued to ride on the backward trends that you also established?" Komnenić asked.
Živković noted that on August 30, 2020, a "peaceful democratic transition of power" took place, and that there was talk "that the DPS would bring out tanks and cannons and defend the government in every way."
"We contributed to the additional democratization of Montenegrin society, those who never recognized Montenegro as a state came to power, to positions of power. So, we had a clerical government that was replaced after a year, and the messages from that government and every subsequent one in this five-year mandate were that DPS as a political entity would disappear from the political scene," he said. Komnenić noted that "there are those who claim that DPS would not have been overthrown if there had not been disappointed sovereignists and political factions of parties that had been on the sovereignist course much longer than DPS."
Živković responded that in 2020, a situation occurred in which the Civic Movement (GP) URA "which was formed by part of the intellectual elite and with the support of the media community in Montenegro" competed in those elections.
"We warned before those elections that the votes of the GP URA would go to the bowl of great Serbian nationalism. And this was later confirmed after August 30, 2020. So, four MPs from the civic movement URA ended up in an alliance with the nationalists. Specifically, with Andrija Manić and Milan Knežević and those who are controlled from Belgrade," he said.
"And with the church, which you, as a media community, helped to remove the DPS government in 2020. So, you helped them by believing that you would remain in those positions of power, so with the support of this GP URA, and in fact, the church essentially used you to be in power today," the DPS leader pointed out. Komnenić reminded Živković that his predecessor at the head of the strongest opposition party and former Prime Minister Milo Đukanović also lit Christmas trees with the metropolitan "even in the worst of times."
"And I'm talking about, for example, that you called yourselves friends and partners. So we can talk, if necessary, additionally in the future in the show and the role of Amfilohije Radović in Montenegro, what kind of person he was," said Komnenić.
"As for our relationship with the church - He is very well known. After all, you know very well what our relationship with the church was like in 2019, 2020 and before that," Živković replied, to which the host noted that he "also knows what it was like before that."
Živković emphasized that they are not running away from their own responsibility for the loss of power.
"So, we have not deprived ourselves of objective responsibility that we, too, deserved to go into opposition through our actions. We accepted that circumstance, we went into opposition, and as I tell you, we have had no problems with that for the past five years," he said.
Komnenić noted that the disappointed sovereignists did not vote for the "Greater Serbia wave", but they did "against the corruption and organized crime in which the DPS was steeped."
"And this is being publicly confirmed today, because a sea of people from the security sector, which you sovereignly created, are indicted on charges of collaborating with organized crime," said the host.
"We will answer, it's no problem, but I just want to refute that thesis. So, the sovereignists you are talking about were manipulated by those who were looking for an alternative to the change of government of the DPS," said Živković.
Komnenić agreed with that position, adding that they did not even vote for "DPS to create a state of friends and godfathers."
"But they were deceived by those who worked on that project. And we know that it was Vijesti that supported that project," he pointed out.
Živković added that "Vijesti worked together with the church."
"I must remind you that Miško Perović and Željko Ivanović met with Gojko Perović as the beautiful face of the church, that he was presented as the beautiful face of the church on the portal and in Vijesti, just so that there would be a change of government in Montenegro. Whether that is legitimate or not is another question, but there was a change of government on August 30th and you yourself claim that those citizens were deceived and that if that part of the vote had not gone to the side of that nationalism, we would not have this government here today," he said.
"But I also mentioned to you that we also bear responsibility for the change in government, thanks to the mistakes we made in exercising that power. So, we can talk about some of the mistakes, we can talk about some of the mistakes and we will get to that, but we return to the essential thesis - if it were not for GP URA, those four MPs would not have essentially led to the collapse of all the values we have today," added the DPS leader.
Komnenić reacted to this by saying that "there would not even be an arrest."
"There would be arrests because no one would exempt themselves from responsibility, both the prosecution and the courts and anything else, Mr. Komnenić. No one can exempt themselves from responsibility. Not you, not me. No one can escape justice. They can't, remember. You can have whatever political patronage you want," Živković pointed out.
As he added, sooner or later everyone will face justice.
"Whoever violated a certain law. But that is not the reason. That you overthrow the state because of that and that today we are dealing with issues of revision of history and its orientation and anti-fascism and that we are dealing with issues of whether Montenegro will survive as an independent and sovereign state," the DPS leader said.
He also addressed the first question - the competitors' claims that DPS will disappear.
"I remember when representatives of the political majority waved from the benches and said goodbye to DPS. DPS will disappear. And the messages from Andrija Mandić and other figures from that parliamentary majority that we are only there for material benefits and privileges and that DPS will end up at 10 or 12 percent like the SPS in Serbia. As we can see five years later, DPS has not disappeared. We do not brag about our election results or are pretentious in announcing our political dimensions, but we are restoring public trust that in some of the next parliamentary elections, within the circle of traditional partners, we will replace this government without any new political experiments that will blackmail the idea of an independent and sovereign Montenegro," he said.
The government is still trying to lower DPS's percentage, instead of focusing on improving the lives of citizens.
Živković assessed that the government is still concerned with the DPS and how to lower their percentage, rather than "improving the lives of citizens."
"I can even agree with you on that. If every response to the accusations is that they behave similarly to you, don't bring DPS back, people. And I agree on that. On the other hand, I can't agree with you when you speak the way you did a moment ago," Komnenić said.
"You know, because if it weren't you, or rather your party, not you personally, who laid the foundations of that nationalism, in which you recognize the scourge today, from 1990 to 1998. If it weren't for your rule that a set of unsolved war crimes were organized? If a sea of murders were not committed in this area. And today we don't know who the perpetrators were, nor who the order-givers were. If you had taken care, at least after 2006, to create stable institutions, this country would not have fallen so easily, nor would it have been such easy prey, and I agree that today, thanks to you, and to those who came after you, it is easy to shake those foundations," said Komnenić.
Živković stated that the claim that "if it weren't for everything that DPS did in the past, what happened today wouldn't have happened" is a thesis that is "repeatedly conveyed from this media platform."
"Let me refute it with a few facts. If it weren't for this policy, there would have been no break with Milošević's policy in 1997. If it weren't for this policy, there would probably have been a war here. Because if Andrija Mandić had been there, don't have any doubt that we would have been bombed, that we would have had a war here. When I say Andrija Mandić, I'm not talking in terms of personality, but in terms of that policy," he said.
"If it weren't for this policy, Montenegrin independence would not have been restored. Not against the backdrop of the thesis we heard in the Montenegrin parliament, announced by Europe Now Movement (PES) MP Mišo Laković, that there would allegedly be a greater number of supporters for an independent Montenegro, if DPS had not been on the frontline as the party carrying out the process of Montenegro's independence, but there would allegedly be more people, which is completely absurd. If it weren't for this policy, the European, or rather Euro-Atlantic perspective, would not have opened. So, if it weren't for DPS's policy, this wouldn't have happened," Živković added.
Komnenić reiterated that many critics claim that the DPS's coalition capacity is "almost zero" and asked the party's leader whether they are eventually becoming what they have criticized the competition for from a position of power - "an eternally satisfied opposition."
"No. It means a lot that we have the highest percentage, because you forget what I told you at the very beginning, which is that our competition wants to reduce DPS to a measure of political relevance and they are working on it all the time. Not only are they failing to do so, but we are managing to gradually restore the trust of voters and I told you that it is somewhere between 27 and 28 percent today. I believe that we will increase it by the next elections," Živković replied.
"When we talk about the coalition capacity of the DPS, we certainly don't think that those people who currently form the government in Montenegro will rush to embrace the DPS or invite the DPS to be coalition partners with the DPS. You don't expect the Democratic Front or Democrats who resemble the Democratic Front to enter a coalition with the DPS when they have been fighting against the same DPS for years," he added.
He referred to the last parliamentary elections - in 2023, assessing that after them, "supposedly civic, political and European subjects" opted to bring nationalists into power.
"And we see what the combination of nationalism and populism is in Montenegro and how destructive it is. The stories about DPS not having coalition capacity come from those who do not have the courage to move towards the realization of what is a politically stable government that would ensure political stability, and from that political stability protect the state interests of Montenegro. It comes predominantly from PES. I say, it comes from PES, because PES does not have any courage to move towards the realization of a coalition with DPS," said Živković.
As he added, they did not have that courage in 2023 because there is a significant number of those in PES who were previously in the Democratic Front and only moved there to pursue their interests, but ideologically they remained in the same positions, to which Komnenić reacted by asking "how many of them were in DPS".
Živković pointed out that when he talks about the coalition capacity of the DPS, "they are only looking for excuses."
"You remember that story at the beginning, how we don't have a coalition or capacity, because we haven't given up on some bad practices from the previous period. So then there was the story at the beginning how we need to reform ourselves in terms of personnel, to get some new people in the first person of the party. Then after that, the story appeared that we need to change the name. Then the story appeared that Milo Đukanović is governing from the shadows with DPS. All lame excuses, those who don't have the courage to do what is only right for Montenegro, which is to get a politically stable government with those who are essentially committed to the civic European future of this country. When you don't have the courage, you get this," he said.
Komnenić recalled that DPS deputies often said that they recognized their former officials in PES.
"Exactly. Exactly, we never disputed that," Živković replied, to which Komnenić replied that "they built that structure too."
"It's not about building the structure you're talking about. It's about the need for people who were once in DPS to no longer recognize their politics in DPS, but have moved to other political entities. But that's not about us, it's about those who are changing... No, no, it's not about us, it's about those who want to change the political structure," Živković pointed out.
"I have no problem with that at all, as long as we fully understand each other. People change, they need to change politics, but it's not a problem that they switched to PES. Tomorrow they will change sides from PES and move to some other party or policy that will be an integral part of the government. And that's not a problem of politics, but a problem of character," he added.
We did not reach an agreement with the government in Podgorica due to blackmail.
Komnenić responded by saying that the DPS was changing ideologies.
"Until 1998, it was Greater Serbia, right? So then you switched to this, let's say it yourself today, and I'm glad you say it like that, the right side of history," he said. Komnenić also referred to last year's local elections in Podgorica. "When you talk about coalition potential, at one point it seemed that DPS could step forward in Podgorica. This was suggested at some point by both the president of the state and the Movement for Podgorica. And in the end, everything ended the way it did. Now the president of the state, Jakov Milatović, says - what kind of opposition, what kind of government," he said.
Živković responded that this was said by "someone who happens to be in the position," and that he did not consider these statements relevant.
"I will just remind you of the chronology surrounding Podgorica. The same president of the state who was at the head of the Movement for Podgorica list, which also included representatives of that movement and GP URA, claimed in the previous elections that he would never end up in an alliance with Milojko Spajić and PES and with this government that violates the Constitution of Montenegro and is an obstacle to the achievement of European integration of our country," he pointed out.
"As he added, he heard it not only publicly, since Milatović has stated it several times, you know all that, but I heard it personally from him when I was at meetings and he was even more critical in some segments than we as the opposition in relation to the government's positions," he added.
The DPS leader said that he heard such statements about 48 hours or 24 hours before the formation of the government.
"There was no doubt that based on those statements, it was said that a government would be formed based on the electoral will of the citizens. And the electoral will of the citizens said that we, as the opposition to that government, together with the Movement for Podgorica, achieved an electoral result that ensures us a majority in those elections. Based on what the election messages were," he said.
Komnenić then asked whether this meant "that the backlash against DPS is still much stronger, even than what was promised in the election."
"That people are afraid that they will be completely politically isolated, that they will disappear if they enter into any kind of arrangement with you. Does that still say something crucial about DPS?" he pointed out.
Živković denied that claim.
"No, don't talk about that if we're talking specifically about the case related to Podgorica. We're talking about the fact that serious blackmail occurred there. The repertoire that Belgrade uses in forming the government in Podgorica or Montenegro is very well known. You know what that repertoire looks like, and that's pressuring the media first. You know better. So pressuring the media first," he said.
"Well, you know that first the information appears on the borka, Infors and some of their media, and if that doesn't work, then church representatives and church dignitaries get involved, and if that doesn't work either, then criminal structures from Belgrade get involved. And of course, when you have, I'll explain it, when you have that situation as it is, then it's logical for a situation like this to happen in Podgorica, to form a government where someone can be blackmailed, and when you have people who can be blackmailed, then you don't even have to expect that we can form a normal and stable government in Podgorica," he added.
"My idea was to declare Đukanović an honorary president"
Komnenić also referred to this year's DPS congress, at which Đukanović was elected honorary president.
"What message did you send with that decision, since most of the political spectrum is telling you that they won't work with you as long as Đukanović is in the game. Is public loyalty to Đukanović or the future of the party more important to you... Is Đukanović still asking himself in DPS?", asked the host.
"So, as for 2023, you know that after the presidential elections, Mr. Đukanović resigned as president of the DPS and that we then took over the leadership of the party. When he says this to me, I'm talking about myself, who became the acting president of the party, and after that we had direct intra-party elections where the leadership was directly elected. We're talking about the president and vice presidents, presidents of municipal boards," Živković replied.
He pointed out that a number of important decisions were made at the congress - the program, statute, main board, new presidency, and two days ago, some new appointments within the DPS.
"It is natural and logical that the appointment, or rather the election of Milo Đukanović as honorary president of the party, would attract the greatest attention, because this is a figure who has marked the socio-political life of Montenegro for over 30 years right here."
Now, naturally, the question arises whether, in such an environment, we actually contributed to the alleged DPS losing additional coalition capacity," said Živković.
"I'll remind you, when Đukanović stepped down from the position of president of the DPS, there was a narrative, Milo Đukanović is asking questions and managing the shadows within the DPS. Is that right? And then when we appointed him honorary president, they said, now our thesis that he is asking questions and managing is essentially confirmed, to be completely clear," he added.
Komnenić asked whose idea it was.
"Our idea was that there was no mystification and that I was completely in agreement with that and that idea came from me. That you had no dilemma. You have no dilemma, so it never happened that Mr. Đukanović spoke to me to recommend any decision within the DPS," Živković replied.
The host reminded that DPS MP Nikola Janović also opposed the appointment of Đukanović as honorary president, to which Živkvoić replied that Janović had never disputed it.
"But we are talking about Milo Đukanović becoming an honorary president because he achieved important results that I just listed. He was at the forefront of state policy that prevented war, the bombing of Montenegro, he was at the forefront of the movement for an independent Montenegro and initiated this process," Živković pointed out.
The host pointed out that Đukanović is the person who divides Montenegro and asked whether that decision brought them political profit or if it would have brought them more if they had not done so. "That you have in some way made it easier for potential future partners to approach you," he added.
Živković stated that he "explained what kind of partners we are talking about."
"I explained it to you using the example of a president who says one thing 24 hours before the formation of a government, then does not make a public statement about it and allows a government to be formed that he thought the worst about before it even happens," he said.
"Only about PES, there is no need to talk about them further, because these are people who do not have the courage to make any decisions. There is no obstacle in Milo Đukanović or Daniel Živković. So, there is no obstacle. They have aligned themselves with nationalists, brought nationalists into power and brought Montenegro to the abyss. Both economically and in every other sense," he added.
He stressed that they never made decisions "that would pander to any section of the public."
"So, to return to the previous question about Milo Đukanović, would that make it easier or harder for us? As you know, we have never made any decision to pander to any part of the public. Personally, in the conversation I had with other members of the presidency, I believed that I should make a decision for Milo Đukanović to be the honorary president of our party," he said.
Komnenić added that they, as a party, should scan public opinion. Živković replied that they were working on it.
"The best impression about whether the reform has been implemented and what the reform is like within the Democratic Party of Socialists, there is no one else to give than the citizens, or rather the voters in the elections. Have we increased our rating compared to the parliamentary elections? Have we? Do the citizens give a judgment on how the reform has been implemented within the Democratic Party of Socialists, despite the fact that we have a situation where Milo Đukanović is the honorary president?", he said.
Komnenić added that they had the opportunity to come to power, pointing out that you have 20 percent.
"DPS will certainly reach 30 percent of the support of the voting public in the next elections. Let's see who else can reach that 20 percent, together with minority parties and other related political entities, in order to reach a majority and send this government into opposition. In other words, are you saying that this is your maximum?", asked the host.
Živković denied these claims.
"I don't think that's our maximum, I don't think so, but you will also agree that it is a real curiosity that someone who spent 30 years in positions of power after five years spent in opposition under such a barrage of fire from the entire state and security apparatus and every other apparatus and pressure from outside and from this government maintains the rating that we have today. If that is a curiosity, then we will agree on that at least," he said.
"The current government is doing worse than DPS"
Živković also assessed that the current government "is doing worse than the DPS did," and that it is not possible for them to win 51 percent, but if forced to, they may have to make an effort to do so.
However, as he revealed, they are not in favor of such a model and someone must be found to animate voters who do not want to vote for DPS.
"And when we talk about those voters who previously voted for civic movements, based on their election results in the previous period, we can see that they have lost that trust," he pointed out.
Speaking about Janović, Komnenić reminded that he had another decision against the party - he remained to vote against the agreement with the United Arab Emirates, even though the other DPS parliamentarians left the hall, and asked him if such decisions of his were the reason why he was not in the party presidency.
Živković denied this.
"No, and let me explain why not. At the very beginning of my mandate as acting party president, and later as elected president, I noticed the challenges facing our party, and one of those challenges is certainly the issue of renewing, strengthening and empowering our party infrastructure," he pointed out.
He added that their success is based on infrastructure.
"And I believed that the presidency should include people who know the grassroots party work very well in order to strengthen our party infrastructure. That's why I opted for such a concept of the presidency. Believe me, we could have conceived it for two, three, four or five different presidencies if we had thought it should be done differently," he explained, adding that he still communicates with Janović about important political roles.
Komnenić noted that Zoran Pažin, Predrag Bošković, Milutin Simović... were no longer in the presidency.
"Which people, if you didn't renounce Đukanović, which party officials did you renounce, so that the Montenegrin public could hear you? And which party officials, in your opinion, caused damage to the party's image and brand for the time to come?" he asked.
Živković replied that Pažin and Bošković were on the main board.
"Those people who are on the main board today can contribute to the policy of the Democratic Party of Socialists from that position. And that is completely clear and there is nothing hidden about that," he pointed out.
"Which persons by name and surname caused the damage? Well, you see, when we talk about causing damage to the image of DPS, it is difficult to exempt yourself from responsibility the moment cases arise that have been legally adjudicated in some proceedings and you cannot exempt yourself from that part of objective liability. It is a harsh term when you announce who you have disowned," he added.
He pointed out that they did not agree on whether someone had committed a crime or damaged the budget, to which Komnenić replied that it was clear that "those people worked more for their own pockets than for the state's pocket and the public interest."
"Wherever there is a violation of the law, a criminal offense has been committed, where an official verdict has been reached, I have no doubt that I will clearly decide on each case and will never receive support from either me or any individual if there is a violation of the law. Just as I would not support anyone from my circle to do something like that, I would not support any individual from the ranks of the DPS, nor praise them, nor, I don't know, glorify them if they committed a criminal offense," Živković emphasized, adding that certain DPS officials who violated the law have been sentenced and that they have received an adequate sanction.
Komnenić asked what if investigative actions were also taken against Đukanović, to which Živković pointed out that he believed that his predecessor at the head of the party had not committed any criminal offense.
"So, would that be an alarm for the DPS? First, I believe that Mr. Đukanović has strictly, as he himself says, taken care that in the previous 30 years he has not committed anything that would bring him into the zone of criminal responsibility," he pointed out, adding that Đukanović is available to all authorities.
"As we can see, he did not go to Dubai or any other country, as our political competition has been claiming for 30 years," he added.
Komnenić reminded that DPS twice launched an initiative to replace Mandić, but also that they did not want to delegate the vice president during the mandates of Alesa Bečić and Danijela Đurović, and now they want Nikola Rakočević for that position.
"In this way, you are sending a message that your expectations that there will be early elections are unfounded and that the team in power, which you criticize, will see the end of its mandate," Komnenić pointed out.
"No, far from it. You can see for yourself what the parliamentary majority has turned into, so that within five minutes things within the parliamentary majority can change. Here are just a few cases. Look at the agreement that allegedly had three-fifths support in the parliament with the United Arab Emirates, so it received... 41 votes in the Parliament of Montenegro. Do I need to remind you that Andrija Mandić, when he was elected President of the Parliament, had that three-fifths majority of 49 MPs, that in the last vote he had 41 MPs in favor of remaining in the position of President, and that that 41st was from the opposition, Vladimir Dobricanin," he said.
When asked why he was given legitimacy by being appointed vice president, Živković referred to the opposing positions of government members.
"For example, the story about how Lazar Šćepanović has all the support to fight organized crime and corruption, to extend his acting mandate in the government, neither the NSD, nor the DMP, nor the Socialist People's Party, nor the Albanian Forum voted. When you translate that into numbers in the Parliament of Montenegro, you have 17 MPs who do not trust him from the parliamentary majority. Each of these topics, and who knows who is next, will affect the stability within that parliamentary majority, which means that it is impossible to know when and whether the next parliamentary elections will come," he pointed out.
"I'm going back to the basic answer to your question regarding why we decided to delegate the Deputy Speaker of the Assembly now. I will remind you that we did not have a Deputy Speaker of the Assembly at the time when you mentioned Aleksa Bečić and Danijela Đurović, and that's when we definitely made a mistake," he explained, adding that their situation was made more difficult "at the moments when the Assembly was locked by Strahinja Bulajić, who, on the orders of Andrija Mandić, locked the Assembly for two months."
Komnenić asked why, and whose mistake was it, they gave the mandates in Cetinje to the Social Democratic Party.
Živković pointed out that they did not let him go, and that he did so in agreement with the president of the Cetinje DPS board.
"The board's decision was to leave the local parliament after disrespecting the institutions," he announced.
He added, however, that he would not withdraw from the Assembly of the Royal Capital, because they would not have members of the polling stations in the next elections.
When asked by reporters whether they thought there would be early elections, Živković replied that "their connective tissue and nation is an armchair."
"We did not even believe that a parliamentary question could destabilize a government like the government of Zdravko Krivokapić, and destabilization occurred, so you cannot believe that a parliamentary question or some other situation could lead to early parliamentary elections," he pointed out.
Živković: The idea of forming an Inquiry Committee originated in the BIA
Komnenić referred to the work of the Inquiry Committee, where former police officers Milan Paunović and Brajuško Brajušković testified, and asked whether this "unmasks the DPS government as criminal," and whether it is in the party's interest to discover who the beaters were during their rule.
Živković responded that they were not interested in participating in the work of the committee, but that the idea of forming that body originated in the BIA, and that Milan Knežević was challenging independent Montenegro by emphasizing that it was founded on crime.
"It is not my political observation, but Milan Knežević's observation. This political observation was made by Ivan Vuković, while he was, for some reason, at the BIA headquarters, and was detained there during one of the protests against Aleksandar Vučić, or rather his dictatorship in Belgrade, and heard, among other things, from members of the Security and Information Agency identical theses that Milan Knežević had stated from the very beginning," he said.
As he pointed out, ever since Paunović said that musician Bato Vujošević was "a member of the black troika, everything has turned into one big mockery."
Živković added that the work of the committee is being purposefully extended for two years - until the next elections, and that in the five years since the dismissal of the DPS, not a single piece of evidence has emerged that certain murders were politically motivated.
Komnenić asked the DPS leader whether he was uncomfortable with the fact that the rifle used to kill Duško Jovanović was linked to state security and that his party was in power at the time, to which he replied that he would like the case to be "resolved today."
Then, a report was aired in which the former prime minister and head of the ANB confirmed the existence of the so-called Seventh Directorate, but also another in which Đukanović denied it.
Živković responded that his predecessor at the head of the DPS, in a discussion with Mandić, denied the existence of the Seventh Administration, which persecuted dissenters.
"Because if it had, the then head of the service, Vukašin Maraš, would certainly not have received high recognition from the United States, that is, the intelligence agency, that there was allegedly some organized criminal gang there that would carry out executions, beatings and all that," he said.
The host recalled the case of fugitive inspector Ljubo Milović, former special state prosecutor Milivoj Katnić who "kept cases in a drawer", and Petar Lazović who lent money to Darko Šarić so that he could give it to the DPS.
"What would you, as an independent observer or reader, think about that party?" he asked.
"The same thing I would conclude from the application about how a clan got involved, on the orders of a church dignitary, in the procurement of Kalashnikovs to prepare for the defense of the electoral will of citizens in the run-up to the elections," Živković replied.
He added that everything in the Sky correspondence should be investigated by the prosecution.
Živković recalled that Katnić and other prosecutors arrested DPS officials.
"Milivoje Katnić worked for DPS by arresting DPS officials. Something is not logical here," he pointed out.
Komnenić also mentioned former DPS official Svetozar Marović, about whom Živković said that no one, not even the party, can abolish him when he commits a criminal offense.
The host also referred to the cases of the arrested Duško Golubović, Slavko Stojanović, Jelena Perović... to which Živković replied that the presumption of innocence applies to all of them.
The DPS leader also addressed the "coup d'état" case.
"Regarding the coup, Mr. Đukanović stated his findings based on what he had learned... while he was prime minister, and the president of the neighboring country, Aleksandar Vučić, also spoke about it, saying that bloodshed was being prepared in Montenegro. Although the evidence from Great Britain and the United States indicated that a miracle was being prepared in Montenegro, that is, bloodshed, and it came to the point that a higher court acquitted everyone in that case, then that speaks volumes about the credibility of the courts in Montenegro," he pointed out.
Komnenić referred to the case of Milutin Smović, who is accused of damaging the state in the "Abu Dhabi Fund" case.
Živković responded that he was not bothered that Novović was dealing with Simović or Petar Ivanović, who allegedly damaged the budget by 8.000 euros, but he was concerned that he was not dealing with the case of former Minister of Education Vesna Bratić, who "damaged the budget by half a million euros."
He added that he has information that incomplete documentation was submitted from 240 schools, after which the Special Police Department had to go to those schools.
As he pointed out, the prosecution is not dealing with the Coal Mine case, employment at the Port of Bar... but only with the Sky correspondence.
Komnenić asked Živković whether the US had blacklisted Brano Mićunović, whose funeral he attended.
He replied that he did, but that "even the US cannot influence his private life," and that it was a matter of family relations.
Bonus video:
