Joković to "Vijesti": If he leaves the SNP, Šćekić cannot be a minister

Anyone who is not part of the Socialist People's Party (SNP) cannot perform any function on behalf of the party.

This was stated by the leader of the SNP and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management in an interview with "Vijesti". Vladimir Jokovic.

He claims he never had any problems with the SNP vice president and the minister of sports and youth. Dragoslav Šćekić, who will be his opponent for the position of party president at the upcoming Congress, scheduled for August 30th, and that certain people around Šćekić influenced the former leader of Berane to change his attitude towards many SNP members.

"By doing so, he has put himself in a situation where it is almost impossible for him to become the president of the SNP... Theoretically, it seems to me that Šćekić cannot win at the Congress, and I am not even sure that he will participate, even though he has accepted the candidacy," said Joković.

Why do you think you are the best choice for leader of the SNP? Do you think that your work in the previous two terms of office earned you a third?

I do not think I am the best choice for president of the SNP, nor is my opinion relevant for that. That is the decision of the municipal committees and party bodies, who proposed me.

Twenty-two municipal committees have nominated me for party president. Twenty-one presidents of the municipal committees of the SNP directly support me. I am supported by the parliamentary group, by the presidents of municipalities, and by the original, old members of the SNP, the founders of the party. Based on their proposals, I accepted the candidacy, because I have already said before that I will not run unless I see that I have at least two-thirds of the votes in support. Based on the current situation, as I see it and as I am receiving information from the field, it will be well over two-thirds.

Are you satisfied with your work in the previous two presidential terms?

I am satisfied with the way the SNP is now compared to the way I inherited it in 2017. I am satisfied that during my term there was a change of government in Montenegro and that the SNP is the only political party that participated in all governments after the fall of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). I am satisfied that we have achieved everything we promised when entering the 43rd Government. We promised to fight crime and corruption, sign the Basic Agreement with the Serbian Orthodox Church, conduct a census in Montenegro - and we know that the DPS was against it... We have done everything we promised.

I wish we hadn't in 2023, due to some internal problems, wanting to show that we didn't enter that Government to take functions for ourselves, give certain functions to some people, and they absolutely didn't deserve it. We, wanting to expand our SNP story, gave them certain functions, and then they gave them back to us not very fairly in the 2023 elections. However, we passed even then, when everyone thought we wouldn't pass them. And now we are a stable party, a party that is a serious factor in the government of the 44th Government and we are moving forward and I believe that in the 2027 elections, now we know exactly when they are, we will achieve a significantly better result.

Your opponent for the position of SNP president will be Dragoslav Šćekić. What is your relationship with Mr. Šćekić and do you think that, if he wins the Congress, the party will be in “good hands”?

I have never had any personal problems with Šćekić. I don't know why some of his anger and disagreements arose, he never directly told me why. I think that some people around Šćekić contributed the most to the fact that he changed his attitude not only towards me, I would be overjoyed if it was only towards me, but he also disrupted relations with many people in the party.

By doing so, he has put himself in a situation where it is almost impossible for him to become the president of the SNP. He did not attend the session of the Main Board today. I said what kind of support I expect, theoretically it seems to me that Šćekić cannot win at the Congress, and I am not even sure that he will participate, even though he accepted the candidacy.

Mr. Šćekić stated earlier this year that in 2017, together with Dragan Ivanović, he contributed to your election as SNP president. What is your view on his statement?

No one brought me to the position of president. I am one of the founders of the SNP, I got involved in politics when the SNP was being formed, I went to the congress of Momir's (Bulatović) wing of the DPS, to which I (DPS) had never belonged before, that was when I first entered politics. That was in Kolašin, that congress was interrupted and continued in Podgorica.

I have been in the SNP since its foundation, and Mr. Šćekić, I am sure, if he knew he could win - he would not have supported me. I am also sure that he would Snežana Ionica She probably would have won back then if I hadn't been her opponent.

Dragan Ivanović and Dragoslav Šćekić did support me then, but that's how we won. The difference was only 25 votes, I remember well. At the time, I was a politically unexposed person – I was a member of the Main and Executive Board of the party, but I didn't have any political ambitions, I came from a business background.

Of course, I gave it back to Dragoslav Šćekić. During my presidency, Šćekić was elected president of the Municipality of Berane, where we had the most votes in that coalition. He was appointed director of the Health Fund, and at my suggestion he became the Minister of Health, and later the Minister of Sports. Something that usually belongs to the president of the party, he also became the Deputy Prime Minister, I also proposed that. I agreed that, since he had that ambition, he should be the Deputy Prime Minister. So, no one in the SNP has had more positions, nor has he held positions longer than this generation in which Šćekić is. So his support for me was absolutely returned.

Somewhere Šćekić says that he withdrew once, and even a second time. He did withdraw, knowing that he could not win at the SNP congresses, but he never withdrew from the most important state functions. He did not cede that to anyone else. I cede the position of Deputy Prime Minister to him, in the previous Government the position of Speaker of the Parliament to Danijela Đurović, and in the first one (the 42nd Government of Zdravko Krivokapić - ed. author) I did not take the highest position, but someone else did. So much for how much I want to have some functions.

How do you view the months-long "shootings" within the party and the situation in it ahead of the Congress? Is there a division in the party?

What I saw today, both in holding municipal committees and proposing a candidate for party president - I don't see any division. Here, the largest number of proposals came from those who make up the pillar of the party, meaning the municipal committees - by far the most people proposed me for president.

I have never made a single statement, I have never argued with anyone, I have never given an interview, nor have I, even in the slightest, stated anything negative about anyone from the SNP. That is what those who do not have support in the party do, so they then speak through certain media, I know how and why those media write about one side, and demonize me. However, I tolerate it well because I said – we within the SNP know each other best and the decision at the Congress will be made by the party members, those who support the SNP and who lead it forward.

In Herceg Novi we did not pass the census, I begged the president of the then Municipal Board (Milan Jančić - ed. author) to come, he didn't want to invite me to see what we could do, to talk to people, and Mr. Šćekić came.

When I asked for a Municipal Board meeting to be held, to start work in the party before the elections, there were rumors that it could not be organized. When I said that I was only going on a trip for one day, and that we had to finish it, on the very day that I left, a Municipal Board meeting was held and Mr. Šćekić was there.

When I sensed what was happening, I called Mr. Jančić at every Presidency, he promised that they would have four mandates, that they would create coalitions… Then in the end he said that he was happy that the SNP was going alone, that there was no talk of a census, that they had three or five times more votes than they ultimately received. In the end, they suffered a fiasco, the SNP suffered a fiasco in the elections in Herceg Novi, thanks to such behavior.

Many in Herceg Novi left the municipal board because of such actions... And then the Main Board made a decision to dissolve the Municipal Board in Herceg Novi. A municipal board that was thus dissolved, which had no authority, gathered a certain group of people and supposedly formed a board, and Dragoslav Šćekić was probably present at that.

There were others who asked for the formation of a municipal board in Herceg Novi, there were more people than those who formed it, I said no, to both of them. After the Congress, a municipal board will be formed in Herceg Novi and it will be regulated. The sole culprit for all of this is the Municipal Board in Herceg Novi.

Some media outlets have written in recent days that Mr. Šćekić, if he does not win at the Congress, will leave the SNP and form his own party, taking with him part of the party's membership. If that happens, what will you do to keep that part, which could eventually follow Šćekić?

Those who truly love the SNP and who are here for the SNP, who appreciate the values ​​of the party, who have no personal desires and ambitions outside the party, who are not here for personal promotion and privileges they might eventually receive, will certainly remain in the SNP.

I have encouraging news from the field that, even if Mr. Šćekić were to form a party, they would remain in the SNP. Will some small part of the SNP follow Šćekić? I advise them not to go, because it is a path to nowhere. They will not get anywhere, nor will many who left the SNP. Whether Mr. Šćekić will form a party is a question for him, but I know that he will not win at the Congress.

If Mr. Šćekić loses at Congress, and then leaves the SNP and forms his own party, will he remain part of the Government?

Anyone who is not part of the SNP and leaves the party cannot hold any position on behalf of the SNP. That is definitive. I know what the result will be at the Congress, but under some extreme assumption, if it were different, I am a child of the SNP and I will be in the SNP.

I'm surprised that there's even a grain of SNP left.

The SNP was once by far the strongest opposition party in Montenegro. Today, it has two MPs in parliament, and in some cities that were once strong strongholds of the party, such as Herceg Novi - you did not pass the threshold. If you triumph at the Congress, what is your plan to restore the party's former importance, and what is the main reason for the decline that has occurred?

I am well aware, perhaps better than anyone else, of all the events in the SNP, from its inception to the present day, because I have been part of the Main Committee since day one, and since the second Congress of the party I have been a member of the Executive Committee, i.e. the current Presidency.

The SNP was created as the only major popular movement and, of course, such a large party, based on great ideas, in the fight against crime, corruption... it was not easy to keep it together without participating in the government. All movements, such as the SNP, as they emerge, later undergo certain changes, which the SNP did as well. The SNP has given a lot to the political scene of Montenegro and when someone somewhere says "well, those from the barracks" I say "no, that's the academy of political sciences", because there is no one in Montenegro that is even remotely similar.

No opposition party has ever had or will have such a result. To have 29 MPs when the DPS, which was in power, could not have had that many, and of course in coalitions it had more.

Guaranteed, with that reduction in the number of MPs, with the departure of many, many of our members are no longer here, they are not among us, that has had a significant impact on the SNP's rating. Of course, a lot of media pressure and attacks from those who were with us, and then were not, a lot of that played a role, that I am simply amazed at how a grain of SNP remains, let alone that it has any strength.

However, now, after the changes, many have seen the seriousness of the SNP, that it is a serious party, a civic party, dedicated to good, to man and to social justice, and that we have the broadest coalition potential in Montenegro. Everyone wants to be with us and that gives me serious hope and I can dedicate myself to the work and progress of the party, perhaps now also pressured by the demanding tasks we perform in the ministries. Somewhere, perhaps we have not worked the most on the infrastructure and strengthening of the SNP, that will be our focus from now until the 2027 elections.

The key thing is party unity.

What are the three most important issues you will address within the party if you are re-elected president?

First, we will visit all the municipal committees, talk to everyone, create a good media team, expand the party infrastructure even further - to the local committees, and we will see to it that we include many important people in the work of the party, who objectively support us, but who have not participated in the party bodies so far.

We will do and listen to the voice of our true members as and when necessary, we will modernize the party a little, reform it a little, give more space to young people, but never forget those who brought forth and created the SNP, because they are largely carrying it even now. A serious, comprehensive work is ahead to improve the status, harmony and unity, and the key thing I will work on is the unity of the party, because the SNP is our house.

What do you mean when you say you will modernize and reform the party?

I'm thinking of changing our image a little in our appearances, of including other people in the work of the party, and reforms, of course, in line with the times, we will have to make certain changes, but it won't be significant. By respecting every person, we will see that we contribute to the best possible work, that we all have more responsibilities, not only in the jobs we have, but in terms of party work to see what we have done every month.