Several dozen citizens gathered today in the courtyard of the gymnasium in Bar, where, two years ago, more than 90 cypress trees were cut down.
It was announced on social networks that a short performance will be held because gatherings are prohibited due to measures against the spread of the coronavirus.
The Minister of Education, Culture, Sports and Youth Vesna Bratić came in front of the Gymnasium. In addition to the "cypressesar", there were also representatives of the opposition at the local level (DF, Democrats, Prava Crna Gora and URA).
Nikoleta Pavićević addressed the crowd and said that they were in the ugliest yard in Montenegro.
"One year and nine months have passed since the last official dealing with our issue by the competent institutions. One year and nine months as we get lost in the maze of jurisdictions and do not get answers to questions - when we will get a yard, a kindergarten, what will happen to the cypresses. We also remember how the competent authorities worked hard while they pushed the construction of a kindergarten by force and against the will of the citizens, on a plot that does not meet the legal requirements, safety assumptions - and that lack of jurisdiction was not an obstacle for anyone at that time," said Pavićević.
She said that after everything, there remains hope for some better institutions that everyone will easily get used to. As he says, they leave their struggle from the street to those institutions in the hope that they will solve this problem.
Ivana Joličić said that for her, the cutting of cypress trees was "the last drop in the sea of crimes committed by the former government."
She pointed out that participation in the "cypress revolution" cost them all, and that she believes that is why she was never invited to work at the school where she often changed colleagues.
The citizens, among the dried new cypresses and the old ones that survived, also paid tribute to comrade Mirsad Kurgaš, who recently returned from Turkey where he was due to health problems. As they say, Mirsad was with them all the time, so they decided to support him with a poster and a greeting.
Stefan Đukić also greeted the citizens, saying that he hopes to gather next year in a new and better yard.
"We should constantly remind ourselves of everything that followed. It proved that perseverance, hope and faith can defeat excavators, pranksters, illegality and ministers," said Đukić.
Bratić: I hope that next year the yard will be the way you want it to be
The Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Vesna Bratić, accompanied by associates, visited the citizens and the school grounds. The cypress trees showed her new, unreceived cypresses and briefly recounted their struggle for the park and kindergarten.
"This is the first completely civil initiative that has shown that Montenegro is a civil state. As the Prime Minister has repeatedly emphasized, this is the policy of the entire government, citizens are at the center of it," said Bratić.
She emphasized that Montenegro will no longer be just a declaratively ecological country, but really one.
Representatives of the Civic Initiative asked her for concrete solutions and answers regarding the park and kindergarten, and she promised to do her best to solve these problems. It was agreed that the GI would send an official letter and that the Ministry would start implementing it as soon as possible and efficiently.
The measures were mostly respected at the gathering.
On January 17, 2019, in the early hours of the morning, more than 90 cypress trees were cut down in the yard of Bar High School for the construction of a kindergarten on that plot. Citizens of Bar and other parts of Montenegro actively protested for two months. In the end, the government gave up on the construction and promised to return the park to its original appearance, and to build the kindergarten in a different location.
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