Raising the issue of introducing dual citizenship, at a time when Montenegro has the opportunity to "catch" the last train to Brussels, would mean that Montenegro's European perspective is permanently lost.
The Center for Democratic Transition (CDT) announced that this was assessed at the panel "Is it necessary to change the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship?" organized by the NGO as part of the regional project "SMART Balkans - Civil Society for a Connected Western Balkans", implemented by the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD), the Center for Research and Policy Making (CRPM) and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), and financially supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway.
Referring to the proposal of the Democratic People's Party (DNP) to regulate the issue of citizenship in Montenegro as in Turkey, according to the "blue card" model, i.e. a solution according to which our country would enable its emigrants without a Montenegrin passport to obtain many of the rights enjoyed by Montenegrin citizens, except for the right to vote, CIVIS representative Maja Vučelić said that "we must not allow any changes to the Constitution when this topic is at stake."
"The government's priority should be European integration, economic reforms and the rule of law, not any identity politics. I am sorry that my colleagues from the Democratic People's Party, who are actually the initiators of this idea, did not appear to ask them why dual citizenship is being mentioned now when we have an unclear voter list, when we have a problem with residence, when we have a problem that we could not solve, for example, Šavnik, and imagine what would happen if we introduced dual citizenship, would that cause distrust in the electoral process itself," said Vučelić, assessing that political actors who emphasize topics such as dual citizenship, the law on foreign agents or language are actually hindering the European path.
"And that is something that, if this is repeated in the future, we should consider whether these actors should be an integral part of the government," Vučelić added.
Comparing Montenegro with Turkey, Social Democrat MP Nikola Zirojevic He said that Montenegro is a small country, and Turkey is a country of 75 to 80 million inhabitants, and that this is the whole essence and root of this story.
"It is not the same two hundred thousand new citizens in Montenegro because that is a third of the current population of Montenegro and two hundred thousand or half a million or a million in Turkey because that is an eightieth part of its population. At the same time, Turkey has a completely different political situation, Turkish citizens who represent the Turkish diaspora and live outside Turkey are not under the control of other centers of power when it comes to political influences, while the situation in Montenegro is quite clear, those who would receive that Montenegrin citizenship would be dominantly under the control of the centers of power in Belgrade, Banja Luka, it is the same center of power, at least for the time being, that is the political root of the problem."
He also assessed that, in order for the "blue card" principle to function in Montenegro, constitutional amendments are necessary.
"If we start with the best intentions, and I am convinced that those who propose the "blue card" principle do not have good intentions for Montenegro, but let's start with the best intentions in an attempt to realize it, we are opening the topic of constitutional changes in Montenegro. I think that when we start talking about constitutional changes, the "blue card" will be the least important thing for everyone in Montenegro. Because when we raise the topic of constitutional changes, we raise the topic of language, flag, anthem, coat of arms and other completely banal topics at this political moment. This story is an introduction and an attempt to open Pandora's box, which will eventually open everything except the blue card for which it is being opened," added Zirojević.
Speaking in the context of population size and possible changes, Zirojević said that he believes that Montenegro, as a small state in a "quite volatile political area," must maintain a rigid approach, and that in the case of small states, a greater influx of new citizens could completely change the demographic and political structure of the state.
Representative of the academic community on the Committee for Comprehensive Electoral Reform Zlatko Vujović Speaking about cases of electoral engineering, he illustratively referred to the case of the electoral process in Herceg Novi.
"In the case of the elections in Herceg Novi, analyses have shown that there are 10.54% of voters who are double-registered in the electoral roll in addition to the Montenegrin, Herceg Novi voters in the electoral roll of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, of which as many as 82 voters are triple-registered. They have residence in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro. They exercise their voting rights in all three countries," said Vujović, adding that he believes that the initial motivation of these people was not to influence the outcome of the election. As he explained, it is possible that they wanted to achieve some privilege such as paying lower taxes, education or health services...
"Since they violate the laws, these people become easy prey for various actors who rig elections. They are then an example of abuse and, with small compensation, they rotate on this triangle," says Vujović.
Zirojević said that today we have information that the President of the Parliament has dual citizenship, but that we do not have official confirmation of this, and that this is the main problem.
"This really demonstrated the principle of double standards, that we received information about Milojko Spajić within a few days, but we were unable to obtain that information about Andrija Mandić, and to this day we do not have that information," he added.
Vujović said that it is important to emphasize that a large number of Montenegrin citizens work in other countries and that they enjoy their rights legally, which does not mean that they cannot enjoy their rights in Montenegro.
"A lot of things are mixed up, not everyone who works abroad has illegally registered their residence in Montenegro, but has every right to do so," Vujović said.
He added that Montenegro will at some point have tens, even hundreds of thousands of people who will come here to live and that, if we liberalize the system, then the question is who will be the majority in the country.
"I'm not saying whether it's Montenegrins or Serbs, but whether it's the domicile population that includes Montenegrins, Serbs, Bosniaks, Croats, and Albanians, or whether at some point we'll have some Nepalese-Bangladeshi party that will demand its rights in Montenegro. That's the reality," said Vujović.
Vučelić said that she thinks that the Prime Minister (Spajić) has a similar position to hers and that the topic of dual citizenship will not be mentioned without any intention to stop the European path.
She reiterated that anyone who hinders our European path should reconsider whether they should be in the government or not, because, as she said, we must not miss this opportunity.
Zirojević says he wouldn't be surprised if this topic were raised.
"If we put the Botun Wastewater Treatment Plant on one side and dual citizenship on the other, I'm not sure how things would go in the parliamentary majority. Should we save Saša Mujović or bring in one hundred or two hundred thousand new citizens of Serbia and voters of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then tens of thousands from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Nepal... I am convinced that the extreme right-wing part of the parliamentary majority will push this story, both in public and internally. Whether this more moderate part of the parliamentary majority will agree to it remains to be seen, but considering previous experiences, I am acting as if it will happen tomorrow," concluded Zirojević.
Vujović believes that resistance to this idea would be too strong, because as he said, in this case it would mean that it is election engineering and an attempt to falsify the election.
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