Radević: Zirojević imagined that the institution, the Board, should lead with dignity, instead of playing the court jester

State Secretary at the Ministry of Defense Sandra Radević said that Nikola Zirojević, Chairman of the Security and Defense Committee, imagined that he was an institution and told him that a little less imagination and a little more measure were needed.

Earlier today, Minister of Defense Dragan Krapović announced that the manner in which the session of the Defense and Security Committee was scheduled for May 15th violated the practice of checking the minister's availability in communication between the committee and the ministry and agreeing on a date that allows for the responsible presence of all participants. The Committee session scheduled for May 15th was supposed to discuss the Information on the situation in the Armed Forces of Montenegro.

Zirojević responded that Krapović had apparently taken sick leave without pay, as he informed the Committee that he was only available to attend the meeting on two occasions during May.

Radević told Zirojević to lead the Committee with dignity, not pretend to be an institution, schedule meetings responsibly, not set traps, ask questions seriously, not create insults, not spread untruths, respect the Assembly and not play the court jester.

"Because you obviously didn't just sit in someone else's chair, but you also seem to have begun to believe that that chair belongs to you. All that's left is to issue a decree and introduce court protocol. But let's get back to the point. The parliament is the most important institution. The Security and Defense Committee is an important parliamentary body. Parliamentary control is a serious constitutional function. It's just that none of that is proven by noise, insults, self-importance, immaturity, and posing in front of the cameras," reads the statement Radević sent to the media.

She said that Zirojević can be as angry about the calendar as he wants, but facts remain facts.

"And that's why we're telling him, a little less pretension, a little more measure. A little less show, a little more institution. A little less 'we'll know where our place is', and a little more awareness that the function is not for someone to rise above others, but to be worthy of the place they temporarily occupy. Which Zirojević doesn't really manage to do. Because it's not a problem when someone temporarily chairs the Committee. The problem is when the temporary chairman starts to permanently imagine that he is an institution. And an institution, Mr. Zirojević, fortunately, is neither your sentence nor your appearance. The institution is the state, and your every appearance is a street," she concluded.