Krapović: The State Secretary can refer to the party

Regarding the article "Vijesti", published on May 10th under the title "Party, not civil servant", the Minister of Defense reacted yesterday Dragan Krapović (Democrats).

We publish his response in full:

"It's an understatement to say that I am surprised by the article in the ND 'Vijesti' entitled 'Party, not civil servant'."

Of course, I will not equate 'Vijesti' and their interlocutors with some other 'media', as they tried in the aforementioned article to equate today's management of the Ministry of Defense with that during the mandate of the defense ministers of the former regime.

In my humble opinion, the most dangerous thesis and narrative is precisely the thesis that runs through the text, which is - the government has changed, but nothing has changed fundamentally, and everyone is the same! That is simply not true!

I reject such a thesis with indignation and I have an obligation to confront it with the hope that, in accordance with the law and elementary journalistic ethics, I will be given equal space to express my opinion, and of course, in the end, as it should be, citizens and readers will consider the arguments on both sides and form their own position.

I will start, of course, with the question of the respected journalist (Balsha) Rudović which read: Does the Ministry of Defense consider it appropriate for an employee of that department to appear in an official statement simultaneously from the position of a Democratic Party official and an employee of the Ministry, equating the party and the state?

I want to emphasize that in my reaction I will use only very easily provable facts, primarily the legal framework, and that I will not 'consider' anything, i.e. nothing in my reaction will be my personal experience of things, but, as I said, notorious and easily provable facts.

First and foremost, a mistake was made in the question itself, calling the State Secretary an employee of the Ministry of Defense, because as we have already explained, she is not an employee, but a politically delegated person appointed by the Government and whose mandate is tied to the mandate of the minister and the Government itself.

That is an undeniable fact that, I believe, no one will dispute!

Furthermore, the actions and public appearances of politically appointed persons, ministers and state secretaries, are something that in a democratic country you promise in elections, they are something called the policy of the common good and what is the state interest - and which is the political subject, to which the state secretary (Sandra) Radević belongs to, offered in the elections and received the support of a certain number of citizens, and in the end, it was precisely on that basis that you were given the right to form a Government and implement the policies that you offered and promised to the citizens.

If you go back a few years, you will see that vetting is one of the fundamental policies that we have offered to citizens, that we have been advocating for it for years, and that it is precisely on these foundations that we have received the support of a certain percentage of the citizens of Montenegro.

Accordingly, in the departments entrusted to us, with the mechanisms available to us and existing in the laws, we implement these policies, and we regularly inform the public and citizens about them.

The public is witnessing that certain political entities and individuals are opposing this, in our opinion, key process that needs to be implemented, and they are doing so continuously in the Parliament of Montenegro!

Now, regarding individual violations of the law and inappropriate behavior by a couple of contract soldiers, they ask us why such and such a soldier is still in the system when he does not come to work, opens sick leave that is not justified by remittances, and of course - they get the answer that the reason is the legal framework that allows individuals to exploit the weaknesses of the system and legal framework, abuse procedural mechanisms and prolong decisions.

Of course, you get the only possible and logical answer, which is that we (Krapović and Radević, officials of the Democrats) advocate that such phenomena and offenses be prevented and treated with better legal solutions, more appropriate to the situation in which the state apparatus, including the Ministry of Defense, finds itself, but also to the consistent and decisive application of existing mechanisms in the law.

This, of course, already brings a significantly better situation when we are faced with phenomena such as this last case, but also others, much more disastrous for the defense system, where we witness members of the Army of Montenegro cheering on individuals accused of the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murders in the most monstrous ways and organizing drug trafficking, at politicized rallies.

This is what Krapović, Radević and the Democrats are fighting for and advocating, for the integrity and purification of the system through the vetting process, and what the opposition is vehemently opposed to, and why it is opposed - we can clearly see these days from the indictments of the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the correspondence between the former regime's cadres and the accused heads of criminal groups.

To conclude: in light of all the above, it is completely legitimate for the State Secretary to refer to the policy that her party has put forward for citizens, and to say that she is implementing it in the bodies where she has been delegated - again, to be clear - politically delegated.

Therefore, her actions and appearance are legitimate, and it is certainly legal in accordance with the fact that the issue of unauthorized political influence in state bodies - specifically the Ministry of Defense and the Army of Montenegro - is addressed by the Constitution of Montenegro, as well as laws on the Army, defense, civil servants and employees, state administration, and others.

None of the regulations I mentioned were violated when it comes to State Secretary Radević's speech!

So, my humble opinion is that the State Secretary spoke out publicly in accordance with the law and her authority, and completely legitimately advocated the policies that we offered to citizens and received support for them!

If it weren't so, I'm sure that reputable interlocutors, whom I respect immensely, as well as journalists, would "consider" less in the text and express less personal views, and would cite more where we broke the law and thus prove their thesis, which, in my opinion, does not hold true when it comes to this specific case!

I am also interested in the criticism of communication and the statements of Mr. (Zorana) Radulović "that there are still some voices of citizens behind the MP, and that he is not sure that the same situation is with the state secretary."

I would like to remind you that the Democrats in the Parliament of Montenegro have almost two and a half times more MPs than the Social Democrats and that we also have the votes of citizens behind us, and a significantly larger number, so in addition to legality and legitimacy, democracy also clearly says that it is wrong!

Since you are making comparisons, I invite you to conduct a deeper analysis of the personnel and other reforms in the Ministry of Defense since my arrival as Minister of Defense, and I remind you that since my arrival, all four directors of the Ministry's directorates have been changed, as well as the Chief of the General Staff, and I guarantee that none of them are working on the party agenda of any political entity, not even the one to which the state secretaries and I belong.

"Something like that is, firstly, prohibited by law, and secondly - it is diametrically and drastically opposite to what the former regime did in the Ministry of Defense, as evidenced by numerous scandals from the past, but also some that we will only introduce to the public in the time ahead."