Candidates for the leadership of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) say in the campaign for party elections that the DPS made mistakes while governing Montenegro, but they only talk about it casually, not specifying how they made mistakes, but usually apostrophizing that the mistakes concern their relationship with some members .
This is shown by the messages from the campaign for the DPS elections, which will be held on Sunday, January 28. At them, the DPS membership will elect the head and vice-presidents of the party. The candidate for leader is the current acting head of DPS Danijel Zivkovic, while the candidates for vice presidents are members of parliament Aleksandra Vuković Kuč, deputy and president of the Municipality of Bar Dušan Raičević, a physician Elvir Zvrko, and current vice presidents Abaz Dizdarević, Ivan Vukovic i Jevto Erakovic.
So far, they have held tribunes in twenty-one municipalities, and they still have meetings in three more. At all of them, they appear together (although not all at every forum), sending mostly similar messages and not opposing each other despite the fact that the vice-presidential candidates are formally competitors. This can be seen from the content of the press release that DPS sends to the media after the forums that are not open to the public.
The candidates claim that the DPS is not sitting idly by, that it has recognized the mistakes and problems that caused it to lose three decades of power on August 30, 2020, and that it has found the strength to admit its mistakes. However, they do not specify the mistakes, nor do they talk about a single problem that marked the time of their rule of the state, such as criminal affairs, corruption, abuse of institutions... They only say that the attitude towards some of the members "was inadequate, that perhaps there was not enough support, empathy ".
"And we gave some people a fist and a hat", said Živković at the meeting in Mojkovac, talking about how it happened many times that members were offended who, as it is written in the DPS announcement, "remained faithful to the end", without despite the fact that the politics of that party "did not show sensitivity towards their problems".
Despite the membership "mistake", the only thing that some in the DPS consider a mistake is that, as Dušan Raičević recently told "Vijesti", they did not increase salaries and pensions, as was done with the "Europe Now" program.
Civic activist Stefan Djukic assesses that the candidates' statements can show which way the DPS will go. He states that something was finally heard that was missing until now - an acknowledgment of mistakes from the previous thirty years, but he emphasizes that it is not an acknowledgment of bad actions, corruption, crime, for what the courts have sentenced the members of that party for or for which the processes are ongoing , nor that it is a moral responsibility in hundreds, even thousands of cases.
"No, the only recognition is related to the fact that some loyal members were not 'rewarded' for it, but others who turned out to be 'skippers' were favored. When we add to this the fact that most of their statements are nationalistically hard rhetoric based on 'identity issues', we see that DPS does not intend to deviate from the current way of conducting politics. Taking everything into account, we can say with certainty that there will be no reform of this party, but that it will continue on the path that the leadership paved during the time of (the recent leader of the DPS) Milo Đukanović, even though it is about people who have far less charisma and authority", Đukić told "Vijesta".
On Friday, at a meeting in Budva, Živković announced that DPS should not carry "any mortgages" and should not be ashamed of anything.
"No individual from our ranks was given a mandate to do something in the name of the party against the law. Let's not have a dilemma - we were fired for a reason. Let's not get mad at our political competition. It is not their fault that they came to power. We are to blame..." he said.
Candidates for DPS leaders in the campaign do not deviate from Đukanović and his politics. They don't talk too much about the former DPS leader, and Živković mostly mentions him. He said that Đukanović "will remain written in golden letters in the history of Montenegro" and that he is a man "who has shown through his work and deeds that he deserves to be at the head of the DPS for 25 years".
Dizdarević's assessment that the party has the foundations left by the "doyens" and his message of gratitude to the "grey heads" who "wisely led" the DPS is evidence that the candidates are not planning to leave the DPS veterans.
The membership is told at party gatherings that Montenegro has been living "years of agony" since the defeat of the DPS, that it is threatened with a return to the nineties, that "a kind of barbarism" has reigned... They claim that the "stratification" of the ruling majority has begun, that it will come to the splitting of some parties and that the elections will follow earlier than expected.
"... The fallout is approaching, in which we will see which of their two (Europe Now Movement) leaders will emerge smarter and stronger. The DF (Democratic Front) has disintegrated and is moving into a battle to win the spoils and the seats in between Andrije Mandić i Milan Knežević. (Civil Movement) URA and SNP (Socialist People's Party) are fighting frantically for the census, and I don't even need to mention the Democrats," Živković said at a rally.
The candidates claim that the DPS is the "lighthouse of civic Montenegro" and that where they are not asked, according to Ivan Vuković, "nationalism, populism and primitivism" rule. Therefore, they say that they will return to power, because, as Elvir Zvrko claims, this is the only guarantee that Montenegro will survive as a civil, anti-fascist entity.
"... Now we have to dismiss Andrija Mandić the same way we dismissed (former presidents of the Assembly) Danijela Đurović i Aleks Bečić. We and (Prime Minister) Milojko Spajić we should remove him from that position as we did Dritan Abazović i Zdravka Krivokapića”, said Zivkovic.
The campaign, unlike those for the parliamentary, presidential and local elections, is not dominated by harsh messages, although there are some. This is how Zvrko describes former Prime Minister Abazović as "the biggest traitor who fulfilled his boyhood dreams and caused damage to our country." Eraković also talks about "traitors", who says that he will not call those people "who work for the interests of another state and against their own" in any other way.
"These are neither our neighbors nor friends who are obsessed with different ideas, but rather traitors who work in the interests of other countries," he underlined.
In the campaign, the candidates criticize the state of health, education, the economy, the security sector, and also talk about the plans of the DPS. Thus, it was announced that the DPS program, which, he claims, will focus on five areas - systemic reform of education, equal opportunities and rights of all citizens to health care, careful social policy, developmental economic policy, and law and justice.
DPS says that all program proposals will be submitted to the membership for opinion before adoption.
The leadership of the DPS will be elected directly - by the votes of members, not party delegates, which is the first such case in Montenegro. Members will choose the leadership electronically, that is, using an application that will guarantee the reliability and secrecy of that process.
Đukić: Elections in DPS the most common illusion
Stefan Đukić reminds that when the DPS elections were announced, it was said that it would be a revolutionary event for Montenegrin party conditions, that all members would have the direct right to run for office and to vote, and that therefore one could think that, undoubtedly still the most powerful Montenegrin party, decided to reform.
However, he assesses that now, a few days before the election, one must admit that it is "the most ordinary illusion". He explains that there is only one candidate for president, so it is irrelevant how the members vote and whether they vote at all.
He adds that there are six candidates for vice president, and that there is some "competition", but that it can be assumed that one place must be reserved for a woman, and that Aleksandra Vuković Kuč is secure in the position, while they are competing for a place for a member of a minority nation. Zvrko and Dizdarević, and that there are still two positions for which the remaining three candidates are applying.
"Other parties are no different in intra-party elections, only that we could have expected something different here, given the thunderous announcements and public campaign," he states.
Vuković Kuč: Vučić showed that he knows what it means to fight for the "Serbian world"
Aleksandra Vuković Kuč participated the least in the campaign, who was at the last two stands - in Zeta and Danilovgrad. She said that the reason for that was maternal duties.
Judging by the announcements, she was the only one who dealt with Serbia and the "Serbian world" in the campaign. Last night Zeta announced that Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, by saying that "the Serbs have the first dynasty - the Vojislavljević dynasty", showed that he knows very well what the fight for the "Serbian world" means.
"And they know very well that the Vojislavljević dynasty is Montenegrin, just like Zeta is Montenegrin, just like Duklja is Montenegrin... Zeta - the cradle of statehood and they are fighting for the name of Zeta, because they know that they can build not their own on that name politics, but playing tricks on the subjects of the leaders of other countries", she assessed.
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