The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) held a forum in Danilovgrad, from which it was announced that the DPS "is a great party because it knows how to rehabilitate itself, apologize for mistakes and show courage when necessary."
"Throughout history, Danilovgrad always knew how to be on the right side, but also what makes us especially happy is the fact that this city has always been the foundation of contemporary, modern and anti-fascist Montenegro." It is on these foundations that the Montenegro that we represent and that we are building rests," said Dušan Raičević, candidate for the vice-president of the DPS, at the forum held last night in Danilovgrad.
He said, as announced by DPS, that the campaign for party elections and visits to numerous municipalities throughout Montenegro was an opportunity to "make a summary of the situation in the country in the previous three years in discussions with colleagues from the north and south".
"Montenegro is on a detour and is facing the ever-present populism that has gripped all cities, including Danilovgrad. What particularly worries us, and I can say that with full right here - is the appearance of nationalism that is broadcast both in public discourse and in all the places where we move. Because of all that, this is an opportunity to send a strong message from Danilovgrad that we will know how to deal with those nationalists, who are omnipresent, because civil Montenegro has no alternative, and you in Danilovgrad know that best," Raičević added.
DPS vice-president candidate Abaz Dizdarević said that "such a large presence" of DPS members at the forum indicates that in the near future that party will "take responsibility and soon lead Montenegro back on the right path".
"After the north and the south, we are now visiting the central region, and one impression is key - that Montenegro is slowly but surely entering the regression zone. Or as the British would say – a return to the past. That's how we came from the civil state that we created to the society of the Middle Ages. Also, clericalization is very present," Dizdarević stated.
He said that the DPS will "deal with the dangers" that he himself pointed out.
"Who will fight with all that, if not us who knew how to fight for true values even in the nineties. We had the opportunity to meet with our membership in Berane, Andrijevica and Pljevlje, and we saw a gloomy picture of those areas from where chauvinist messages are sent that were not sent even in the nineties," said Dizdarević and then added:
"We have to get out of this darkness of nationalism. We have been in the media darkness for four full years, because we do not have the opportunity to adequately present what our politics are. But it's encouraging to see that we've had such an interested membership at every forum held so far, which means we'll continue to move in the right direction."
He said that today the policy of DPS is "under the greatest test", and then he gave his arguments.
"Starting with the restoration of independence to which the minorities made a great contribution. The road to the EU is at risk, economic parameters are at risk, investors are being driven away. This gloomy picture also moves to the institutions of the system. You also saw your fellow citizen, MP Dragović. This did not happen in the history of Montenegrin parliamentarism. Such chauvinistic and dangerous statements as the message that MP Dragović sent to MP Oskar Huter never came out of the MP's mouth", said Dizdarević and then concluded:
"I am convinced that we will protect ourselves. And Oskar, and Abaz, and Elvira, and all the people who love Montenegro equally, and who don't admit that anyone else can love this country more than us."
Elvir Zvrko, also a candidate for vice president of DPS, also spoke at the party forum, who said that it was a "special privilege" for him to have the opportunity to speak "in front of such a full hall".
"What connects us is the future of DPS and Montenegro, because the future of our country is inextricably linked to our party. That's why I want to thank you for the time you took to be together to talk about the future of the party and the country. We visited about twenty municipal boards, but such a warm welcome and the kind faces I saw make me want to come back a little more in person compared to other gatherings", said Zvrko.
He pointed to the "strength of the party" of which he is a member and candidate for vice president.
"The strength of the DPS is the people, and I am especially glad that tonight I have my first director at the Clinical Center, Dr. Miško Đurović, who was a great support from the first days and someone who in 2003 supported me to get a scholarship to Switzerland. These are the people in DPS who see wider and further. I must also mention my dear director Zorica Kovačević, who had the confidence to appoint me as head of the ENT Clinic in 2018, even though we knew each other very superficially, and I am grateful to her for that. And then I have to mention that my third director announced me tonight", said Zvrko and then explained why he specifically mentioned those people.
"These are people who are a symbol of DPS policy not only in Danilovgrad, but also beyond. That is why DPS was the one who had a vision for the development of Danilovgrad and that is why the perspective of this city was changing. That's why business barriers were removed here, new jobs were created, that's why today Danilovgrad is connected to Podgorica by a boulevard", announced Zvrko.
He also reflected on his impression of visiting other cities through this party campaign.
"We visited the cities where our dissidents have been in power for several terms. These are sleeping cities. In them, projects such as the valorization of Bjelasica, Đalovića Cave and numerous others have been stopped. These are projects that would change the perspective of life in the north of Montenegro. In order for this not to happen and for Danilovgrad not to sleep for a long time, a change must be made and we must come to power both at the local and state level. Rest assured, only the DPS has the strength to turn the situation around in Montenegro," concluded Zvrko.
According to DPS, the candidate for vice president of DPS, Ivan Vuković, apostrophized the presence of people of different generations at the forum.
"Regardless of age differences, loyalty, loyalty and unshakable belonging to our party is more than obvious. This testifies to the fact that the values on which our policy is based last through time here in Danilovgrad, as well as to the fact that you are resisting these social changes that are trying to be imposed on us. For all of us, the people who bear the greatest responsibility for the implementation of our policy, it means a lot. I believe that this is so because we are all proud to belong to a party that has always been recognized for the quality of its political offer," said Vuković.
He assessed that DPS in the last 25 years "has always been a socio-political vanguard" and "one structure that was distinguished by the quality of its offer".
"By that I mean those values that we inherit as a party and that we try to promote and defend against those who are not close to those values. DPS is associated with the values of multi-ethnic, civil, anti-fascist, secular and European Montenegro. I think that neither in Bijeli Bolje nor in Danilovgrad, no other Montenegro has a historical foundation, nor does it have a future and a perspective. Let's just look at the history of this area. If we know who this city is named after, if we also remember Martinić and Lazin, then only that Montenegro makes sense in this environment", said Vuković.
He also said that as a member of the DPS, he is "proud, but not naive", when he listens to "those who resisted all the successes of Montenegro", how they "came to the platform where the DPS is a native".
"Today they are proud to be high state officials of independent Montenegro, and that is our victory. As well as when they try to tell the domestic and international public that they are greater Europeans than us, so they came to our positions", concluded Vuković.
The candidate for DPS vice president, Aleksandra Vuković Kuč, said that she thought that everyone present would "condemn" her because of her absence from previous forums.
"I never believed that one role, in this case motherhood, could make me absent from Montenegro, but I followed this campaign and was proud of it, the work and the unity of the Democratic Party of Socialists," said Vuković Kuč.
She reminded the audience of one, as she said, "a great citizen of Danilovgrad", Veljko Radović, whom she says is one of the greatest satirists and humorists.
"I think that if Veljko Radović had looked at Darko Dragović, he would have said: "I watch these freak broadcasts from the Assembly and I often laugh. What kind of characters are they, as if they came out of the literature of Gogol, what kind of personalities are they", said Vuković Kuč.
"It is clear to all of you from Danilovgrad, because Danilovgrad had people like the President of the Assembly who came from the ranks of the Communist Party, whose successor we are. That was Veljko Milatović, who, I'm sure, and Sonja knows it, who is also from Vinić like her grandfather, deeply and permanently from his grave opposes his and his last name's counterpart, today's president of the state, Jakov Milatović," said the candidate for vice president of the DPS- a.
She said that everything she stated were "big contradictions", and that she believes that "what is happening now shows where the DPS came from", and that "we are by no means making a deviation from the overcoat we have worn and that we want to continue on those values from which we emerged, which is anti-fascism".
"It is indestructible and the provincial politicians cannot destroy it," added Vuković Kuč.
As it was announced, she "reminded the citizens of Danilovgrad of Saint Peter Cetinje, who created the Stega, which had only six members, at the moment when the Americans had a Constitution", and then explained why she was talking about it.
"I am saying this because the long-lasting DPS is actually a party in its prime, which today, when it is 32 years old, and which was only 15 years old when it entered the referendum process, and which came of age by renouncing bad policies and building itself for the better. What makes DPS a great party is its ability to rehabilitate itself. To apologize for the places where we made mistakes, and to have the ability to show courage like this and enter such an election", concluded Aleksandra Vuković Kuč.
DPS vice-president candidate Jevto Eraković said that he is "always overcome by a special emotion" when he is in Danilovgrad, both because of the "large number of friends who live here" and because of the "similar neighborly mentality" which, as he stated, always ruled between Danilovgrad and Nikšić.
"Wise decisions were always made here, the anti-fascist idea and all that adorned the politics of the DPS always dominated. This is a city that developed and was, in the truest sense of the word, an indicator of which way Montenegro should go. Opportunities are open here for many investors, as well as young people to show their qualities, and I am sure that there is no city that had so much potential in young people that is being shown even today in these difficult times. All this is the greatest quality of Danilovgrad today," said Eraković.
He said that in the previous period, we worked well, that we made progress in all fields, until 2020, when, as he said, confidence in the politics of the DPS began to decline, when that party lost elections one after another, and when, as he added, doubts slowly began to arise as to whether the DPS could return to power again.
"There was arbitrariness and mistakes, there were also some moves that were not so popular, but what is the main problem of Danilovgrad and other areas in Montenegro is - that we were not united when it was necessary to fight with the opponent who united against us. This is what led us to a series of bad results", stated Eraković, but also added that he is confident in, as he described, "the wise heads of Bjelopavlić and the strength of the party".
He said that nationalism is one of the great challenges facing today's Montenegro.
"It is the only field where only those who have neither personal nor professional foundation can profit, that's why they try to wake up the bloody nineties. That's why from this place, where the civil and anti-fascist idea always reigned, we say to that Dragović: 'Shame on you', and to Bojović - 'Shame on you', and to say to all those who sow divisions in Montenegro: 'Desire will to be'", Erakovic said.
He also sent a message to, as he called them, "populists".
"We have to tell these populists, who were the leading force until yesterday, that people have read them, that politics can no longer be based on false promises and platitudes. What is certain and what I tell them: "The clock has started ticking for you", and we tell those who were misled by certain ideas to choose the right side, the side of European Montenegro", concluded Eraković.
Bonus video:
