Knežević: Those who benefited the most from the DNP, instead of fighting for the interests of the Serbian people, prioritized privileges

Those who benefited the most from the Democratic People's Party (DNP) in Danilovgrad have shown that at this moment, instead of fighting for the interests of the Serbian people, their priority is personal privileges and sinecures that they received exclusively thanks to the party, announced DNP President Milan Knežević.

The DNP statement states that the party's Committee in Danilovgrad expressed full and unanimous support for Knežević and the party leadership for the decisions made at the Presidency session.

The statement added that the members of the Commission pointed out "the previous mistakes of former officials who recently left the DNP and claimed that the party was further strengthened after these planned attacks and diversions that occurred."

"President Knežević once again reiterated the electoral and program principles of the DNP, stating that he would not deviate from them even a step back, and that he could look everyone in Danilovgrad and Montenegro in the eye. He also pointed out that those who benefited the most from the party in Danilovgrad showed that at this moment, instead of fighting for the interests of the Serbian people, their priority is personal privileges and sinecures that they received exclusively thanks to the party," the statement said.

The DNP said that the party's vice president, Milun Zogović, "thanked for the support and once again emphasized that no function or privilege can be more important than principles and face."

"The session confirmed the decisions that until the election of the president of the Municipal Board, the Commission would be led by Mirko Đurović, and that his deputy would be the vice president of the Municipality of Danilovgrad, Marija Radonjić," the DNP statement reads.

On January 30, the DNP presidency accepted the resignations of Zogović and his party colleague from the DNP, Maja Vukićević, from their positions in the government, after the executive branch the day before did not support their identity demands - the introduction of the Serbian language as an official language, amending the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship (to introduce dual citizenship with Serbia), and standardizing the tricolor as the "national flag". In addition, the DNP also sought dialogue on the issue of the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in Botun.

Zogović resigned from his position as Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Montenegro for Infrastructure and Regional Development, and Vukićević from his position as Minister of Transport.

The Parliament of Montenegro received their resignations yesterday.

The President of the Danilovgrad Municipal Assembly, Predrag Pajović, said on January 23 that Aleksandra Pavicevic and Goran Kalezić, who were DNP councilors, informed him that they would act as independent councilors in the future.

In May last year, the DNP announced that the party's president, Milan Knežević, would propose at the first upcoming session of the Presidency that Kalezić and Pavićević be expelled from the party, after they, together with councilors from the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), voted to dismiss the director of the Day Care Center for Children with Developmental Disabilities and Adults with Disabilities, Violeta Golubović.

"In its ten-year history, not a single DNP MP or councilor has voted together with DPS to dismiss their NSD colleagues," they said at the time.

Long-time DNP official Dragan Bojović has resigned "from all party positions except for the parliamentary one," the DNP announced on January 12th.

"In a letter he sent by email to the members of the Presidency, as he was the only one who did not attend the last session, Mr. Bojović stated that he did not agree with the unanimous decision to leave the Government, and that the reasons for his leaving the DNP were exclusively strategic in nature," the DNP statement from January 12th states.

Bojović then stated in his resignation that anyone who today again persuades Serbs to find themselves in the opposition and on the political margins is not their friend.

In his resignation letter to the president and members of the party's presidency, which "Vijesti" had access to, he said at the time that the issues of the Serbian language and dual citizenship must be resolved exclusively through dialogue, agreement and consensus, and that they are too important to be linked in any way to any local issue.