When he doesn't know what to do, he plays Kosovo: Knežević launches the initiative again, this time at the state level

After the former Democratic Front (DF) unsuccessfully tried three years ago to have the Zeta parliament adopt a declaration annulling the decision to recognize Kosovo on the territory of that municipality, the leader of the Democratic People's Party (DNP) Milan Knezevic Yesterday, he announced that he would once again raise the issue - this time at the state level, which "Vijesti" interlocutors see as his message to voters ahead of next year's elections, due, they claim, to his lack of ability to offer a solution to any important issue.

Knežević said yesterday that at the DNP Presidency meeting he received "full support" to begin the procedure of "withdrawing the decision to recognize Kosovo" with the vice presidents, MPs and councilors.

He stated that by joining the government, the DNP Milojko Spajić (entered in July 2024, exited recently) signed an agreement in which they committed themselves not to emphasize "topics that supposedly divide us", stating that the government's foreign policy is "extremely hostile towards Serbia and the Serbian people".

He announced that DNP councilors will today launch an initiative to withdraw the decision to recognize Kosovo in the territory of Zeta.

"The parliamentary caucuses on the territory of Montenegro, where we exercise power, will launch this initiative. The MPs in the Parliament will also submit an initiative, in the form of a resolution, where we will demand that the Government commit to withdrawing the decision to recognize Kosovo," he said.

Knežević also announced that he would seek the support of the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral for the DNP's initiatives. Joanikia and Budimljansko-Nikšić The method.

This announcement comes a week after the state parliament failed to include the DNP's proposal to standardize the tricolor as the national flag on the agenda - which was one of the identity demands that Knežević's party submitted to the government in early January, and which the executive branch did not accept, which is why the DNP ultimately abandoned it.

"Vijesti" asked the ruling parties yesterday how they would decide on Knežević's initiative, but none of them responded. The editorial team also asked the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral and the Diocese of Budimlje and Nikšić whether they would support Knežević, but they also remained silent.

The DNP did not answer why they decided to raise the issue of withdrawing the decision to recognize Kosovo now, and whether this was an attempt to mobilize voters ahead of the elections.

Djukanovic: A way to justify to voters

Docent at the University of Donja Gorica Nikoleta Djukanovic, told "Vijesti" that she believes Knežević's move is not a surprise, recalling that his political option had previously been against the decision to recognize Kosovo, regardless of the periods in which, through various political agreements and moratoriums, they agreed not to formally open the issue.

"In that sense, this is a continuation of their policy, but also an attempt to further mobilize the electorate in the run-up to the elections," she emphasized.

Đukanović assessed that Knežević is also aware that such an initiative has no realistic prospects for success in the institutions, and that it can be viewed more as a political message and a way of justifying itself to its own voters, than as a serious attempt to change state policy.

"Montenegro made the decision to recognize Kosovo more than a decade ago, and it is part of our foreign policy and international obligations, which do not change through daily political initiatives," the interviewee stated.

Tadić Mijović: Knežević incapable of anything else

Director of the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro Milka Tadic Mijović, she told "Vijesti" that Knežević is "clinging" to Kosovo because he has nothing else to offer the citizens.

"He is not capable of offering an economic program or proposing changes that would improve the situation in the education, health or environmental sectors... Knežević has no proposal to resolve any important issue," she assessed.

Tadić Mijović said that Knežević constantly returns to topics that are "pasture", and that she believes that even citizens who have "strong Serbian feelings" will not fall for such a story, because they see that there is nothing to it.

"This is just another attempt to mobilize voters ahead of next year's parliamentary elections... Knežević is a relic of the 90s, there would be no place for such politicians in a decent state," she said.

An attempt to delegitimize the 2008 decision.

A legal expert the editorial team spoke to explained that the decision to "recognize" Kosovo at the local level can only be declarative in nature, and cannot produce legal effects, because the decision to recognize the state was not made by local governments, but by the government. He stated that this is an attempt to deprive the move of legitimacy.

"Let's say that 10 municipalities make a declaration that the decision to recognize Kosovo on their territory is invalid, Knežević will try to present this as evidence that the decision to recognize Kosovo is not legitimate," said the interlocutor.

Knežević's statement yesterday is not the first in which he has advocated the story of "recognition" of Kosovo. In early May 2023, a month before the parliamentary elections, the parliamentary group of the former DF announced that a "declaration on the annulment and invalidity of the decision" on the recognition of Kosovo in the territory of that municipality would be adopted at the session of the Zeta assembly. The declaration was announced four days after Montenegro supported the proposal for Kosovo to join the Council of Europe.

The Zeta County Parliament members were supposed to discuss the proposed declaration for the first time on June 11, 2023, on election night. Although the session was supposed to be held after the closing of the polling stations, the proposers did not come because they opposed holding the session on election night. A quorum was not secured for the session on June 30, with the same agenda item. The third and fourth sessions, scheduled for the same occasion, were not held because the initiators again failed to appear, and the last attempt was on August 1 of that year, but the former DF members again failed to appear at the session.

The top of the coalition "For the Future of Montenegro" (formerly DF), consisting of the DNP and the New Serbian Democracy Andrija Mandic, at the time he called for "not to undertake such activities in order to contribute to the negotiations for the formation of the Government", but Knežević himself said that he would not give up on annulling the decision to recognize Kosovo in Zeta, and that the non-attendance of the former DF councilors had nothing to do with the negotiations at the time on the constitution of the executive branch.

Montenegro recognized Kosovo on October 9, 2008. The head of the government at that time was Milo Djukanovic (Democratic Party of Socialists), while the then Minister of Foreign Affairs Milan Rocen described the decision as "difficult but necessary."

The decision was the trigger for several days of protests, the most massive of which was on October 13, 2008, which ended in clashes between demonstrators and police.

The current head of parliament, then in the opposition, Andrija Mandić, went on a hunger strike for two weeks to protest the decision to recognize Kosovo, which he called a "betrayal of national interests."