Marunović: There is no surrender and silence, to respond to primitivism with dignity

A group of citizens in Nikšić's Freedom Square organized a celebration on July 13, Statehood Day.

Director Danilo Marunović said that "there is no surrender and silence" and that primitivism must be answered with dignity.

"We are here and there is no going back. Let us remember and remind as much and as much as we need - of Ljub, of Joko, of Sava, of Milica, of Muharem, of all seven Kovačevićs - national heroes, of all their comrades-in-arms who built freedom for us with their lives. Because if we give up the memory of them and the idea of ​​anti-fascism even for a moment, we will be gone. We will be wiped out by the ideological children of those who were defeated 80 years ago. Will we surrender to them and will they silence us? We will should we allow them, in the midst of proud Nikšić, to persecute Ljub and for their middle finger to become more influential than the entire system? There is no surrender and no silence. There is no retreat before the flood of primitivism and fascism. There is no faltering in the fight to save the country. There is no freedom if we don't win by ourselves," Marunović said.

He said that it is necessary to follow those who 82 years ago "started a long and arduous struggle, until the final victory of anti-fascism".

"If they take down our flags from our institutions, we will raise our golden eagles ourselves, the highest. If they shorten our national anthem, we will sing it ourselves, the loudest. If they threaten our friends and neighbors because of a different name, we will defend them ourselves. If they show us the middle finger at state symbols, we will respond to them with two fingers raised high. We will respond to their primitivism with dignity worthy of what we are - an unconquered, freedom-loving, first insurgent nation in Europe," he said.

He said that Nikšić never surrendered "even to those stronger than the current usurpers of the city, and he will not now."

"Little Montenegro organized the first anti-fascist uprising on the soil of Europe. Are we aware of the crazy courage of a people to start a fight against the greatest military power of that time? We are the descendants of those gorostas and we owe it to them not to falter in defending the values ​​of anti-fascism and Montenegro. Gore, the way they created it for us. They are our foundation and stronghold, the answer to every dilemma we have, the source and outlet of our lives. That's why there's no turning back from here. Neither from Nikšić, nor from Cetinje, nor from Podgorica, Pljevlja, Rožaja, Budva, Kotor... Zero tolerance for fascism is our voice and that's why we will never be silent," he concluded.

The program was led by Esad Krcić, while, apart from Marunović, speeches were made by Tanja Pavićević, Nebojša Mrvaljević, Julija Milačić and Zoran Vujović.

Krcić reminded, at the beginning of the event, that Nikšić was liberated from fascist occupation on September 18, 1944 and that it was then the largest liberated city in Yugoslavia.

Academician DANU Sreten Vujović said that the President of Nikšić Municipality Marko Kovačević showed the middle finger to the whole of Montenegro and thereby insulted the entire country, as well as the entire national and cultural Montenegrin being.

Actor Zoran Vujović said, quoting Vito Nikolić, that Nikšić was once a city "full of songs, gunfire, bachelor parties, Titovka, flags of hugs and ruins".

Actress Julija Milačić Petrović Njegoš said that Statehood Day makes us believe exclusively in anti-fascist Montenegro.

"Right here in Niksic, the city of heroes, the famous Niksic, from which you will always hear "Death to fascism, freedom to the people". Despite constant attempts to undermine that heroism and freedom, the truth that the Montenegrin people wrote back in 41, when they decided to say stop fascism, stop chauvinism, stop evil whose only goal is the destruction of everything pure, primordial, everything heroic, no one can deny. The light of anti-fascist Montenegro shone then and will shine forever, its basis is a history worthy of the greatest nations," she pointed out.

She told the citizens that they should not "give up their strength before the scenes of nationalism and fascism". "Let every finger pointed in the direction of the destruction of our country remain floating in the air. Blažo Jovanović said that on July 14, Montenegro was all in flames, it did not surrender then, it will never surrender, it is eternal. In the end, the enemy is that long ago in 41. admitted that 'pacifying the Montenegrins is the same as plowing the sea'. But it's over," said the actress.

Civic activist and executive director of the Forum of Free Citizens "Luča" Nebojša Mrvaljević said that Nikšić was always among the first to "defend the rights, honor and freedom" of Montenegro.

He assessed that the foundations of the civil state in recent years, despite the principles of the Constitution, are "constantly shaking".

"Today, for the umpteenth time, those foundations are being hit again! The human, original and moral right of all of us who live in this area, in an elementary, civil sense, regardless of the usual and everyday, disingenuously placed phrases concerning the national, religious, cultural... is - to oppose the demolition of those foundations. And that, in the true sense of the word that refers to the freedom of a human being, legitimizes us in the best way.

"This 13th of July - which marks not only the day of the uprising against fascism of a small, but long historically established - large nation, is a day to be proud of for all those who, no matter how they prayed or what nation they were - joined the call of freedom during that time , which they wanted to experience Montenegro as a common home. It is also a date that, at least symbolically, reminds us that the foundations of the state - and therefore the foundations of ourselves, and our rights as citizens who constitute it - must be preserved. It is, finally, the date which signifies honor and glory to all those from the entire people of Montenegro, who once again defended the foundations of its freedom, independence and statehood," added Mrvaljević.

Civic activist and journalist Tanja Pavićević said that July 13 is "the day we are inscribed from time into the eternity of existence" and a symbol of the struggle to "remain the masters of our own destiny, and not the periphery of someone else's world."

As I said, the citizens of Nikšić gathered, above all, to celebrate the brightest moment in Montenegrin history.

"We gathered, above all, to use the flame of the thirteenth of July, if only for a moment, right here, from the shadow of Ljub Čupić, to dispel the shadow that would hang over his smile, over the face of Nikšić, over the face of Montenegro. It is not just the shadow of historical revisionism , but also of historical revanchism. Which has not only loomed over us. It is the shadow of the ghost who celebrated Victory Day in Belgrade two years ago with Ljotić's marches, along with which the students from Kragujevac were killed. The ghost who was rejoicing in Srebrenica two days ago, while mothers mourned their dead, killed in the genocide," she said.

She said that the President of the Municipality Marko Kovačević "is not a coincidence", but "a picture of this time". "Once again, anti-fascism will defeat the shadow of a historical vampire that lives on blood, but for the soil. Of course, someone else's. From this place we say: anti-fascism will defeat fascism," she added.

At the rally, songs about Montenegro were played over the loudspeaker, and the national anthem was sung.