He doesn't see the "tears" of his associates: Jovanović criticizes others, while his colleagues attend Mladić's funeral

While the first man of Budva Nikola Jovanovic criticizes the Europe Now Movement (PES) for announcing that they will not vote to remove the head of parliament Andrije Mandić, claiming that this move would further complicate Mandić's relationship with the convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić becomes theirs, "forgetting" that in 2024 he protested in front of the Government against the vote on the resolution on the genocide in Srebrenica at the UN, and that several officials from his list recently attended Mladić's funeral in Belgrade.

Jovanović joined the councilors' debate in the Podgorica parliament the day before yesterday Andrija Klikovac (Democratic Party of Socialists) i Stevan Kandic (PES), saying that PES is trying to relativize the initiative for Mandić's dismissal (requested due to the telegram regarding Mladić's death) and to shift the topic to Budva, and that the reason for that is quite obvious.

"By voting on the initiative, I can no longer remain in the zone of political uncertainty," claims Jovanović.

He said, among other things, that this is exactly why PES is uncomfortable, and that the Prime Minister's party Milojko Spajić found themselves in a situation where their every vote had a political price.

"If they support Mandić's survival, they will have to explain to their voters why they stood behind him and the policies he represents, including his relationship with Ratko Mladić, who from that moment on becomes theirs. If they vote for his dismissal, they will have to explain to a part of their electorate why they made a political U-turn. They have been exposed and that is why they are now trying to change the subject," Jovanović wrote.

The head of the Budva municipality reacted to Kandic's post, in which the PES official posted a photo of a councilor from Jovanovic's list "Budva our city" Aleksandar Petrić at Mladić's funeral in Belgrade.

In addition to Petrić, Mladić's funeral was also attended by a high-ranking official from the Jovanović list and an assistant director at the municipal company "Otpadne vode" Predrag Drago Ivanovic, including Neđeljko Neđo Pekovic, who, according to "Vijesti", is one of Jovanović's main activists in the north of the country.

The leader of Budva did not answer yesterday's editorial question about his relationship with Mladić, considering that he protested the government's decision to vote for a resolution on the Srebrenica genocide at the UN, and how he views the fact that officials from his list "mourned" the war criminal in Belgrade.

DPS: We didn't notice anything...

Some Montenegrin media outlets published a video from Belgrade at the beginning of the week, at the moment of Mladić's funeral, showing Ivanovic and Zeljko Dapcevic, a member of the Board of Directors of the Football Club "Petrovac", whose founder and one of the financiers is the Municipality of Budva. Dapčević is also the owner of the Budva restaurant "Parma", which recently "won the job" of preparing lunch for the users of the Public Kitchen in that coastal town in a tender from the Municipality, for which the restaurant will collect about 30 thousand euros.

Vice President of the Civic Movement (GP) URA and councilor of that party in the Budva parliament Blazo Radjenovic he asked a few days ago whether the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) in Budva would initiate the dismissal of Jovanović due to Ivanović's presence at Mladić's funeral, as they did at the state level by submitting an initiative to dismiss Mandić due to a telegram of condolence.

The government in Budva consists of Jovanović's list "Budva our city" (nine councilors), DPS (seven councilors) and the European Union (two councilors).

Responding to the question of why they still form the government in Budva with Jovanović, considering that officials from his list attended Mladić's funeral, the DPS told "Vijesti" that the party's position regarding the adjudicated war crimes and genocide in Srebrenica is known to the public, and that this position, among other things, led to the initiative to dismiss Mandić, and that "there is no dilemma" in this regard.

However, they said that they had not noticed any public stance from Jovanović, nor the stance of the "Budva Our City" list that would question their previous, as they said, "extremely successful cooperation."

"The private actions of individuals who are members or sympathizers of the aforementioned group are a topic for discussion within the aforementioned structure and do not in any way affect cooperation with the Mayor, Mr. Jovanović," the newspaper wrote in its response.

The Speaker of the Budva Parliament did not answer the same question. Petar Odžić, whose European Union supported the DPS initiative to remove Mandić.

The alleged dismissal of Jovanović was discussed at the beginning of the week, when the opposition councilor Đorđe Zenović (Movement for the City) said that he was "pleased with the information" that the DPS and the European Union were "seriously considering" preparing an initiative to dismiss Jovanović and the deputy mayor of the municipality, Dejan Božović i Vlada Ivanovic.

However, the DPS and the European Union denied that claim, calling it a "political fabrication."

"War" on the networks

DPS councilor Andrija Klikovac said the day before yesterday that he expects the mayor of Podgorica to Saša Mujović (PES) to continue "maximum cooperation" with the United Montenegro councilor in the Podgorica parliament Milivoj Brdža Brković, who was detained on September 8 for expressing support for Mladić, adding that he expects that Mujović and Brković will soon jointly propose that Podgorica get a street named after the war criminal.

Kandić responded to this by publishing a photo of a councilor from Jovanović's list "Budva our city" at Mladić's funeral in Belgrade, with the message that the "firm" positions and condemnations of the DPS are valid only "until Brajić".

"From Brajić onwards, principles fell silent, judgments disappeared, and other attitudes - and other interests - entered the scene," Kandić assessed.

Then Jovanović joined the story, stating that Budva was not the subject of the DPS initiative, but that Mandić was.

"And since PES wants to raise the issue of Budva, let them first remember that they won one of 33 councilor mandates in the elections. The citizens of Budva have already given their verdict and there is no need for PES to rewrite it now through political statements. We will not speculate on who controls whom, nor will we attribute to anyone what they did not say," said the leader of Budva.

He also claims that PES "got on the wrong train", that now "every stop is wrong for them", and that then comes "what they are trying to escape from the most", which is the vote (on Mandić), "because that is when all the political masks will fall".