Repression and intimidation... This is how representatives of STEGA and the gathered citizens comment on the filing of misdemeanor charges against 35 participants in the protest that was held on July 8th, on the occasion, as they said, of the awarding of the July Thirteenth Award to the promoter of the Chetnik movement.
"The new liberators are freeing us from the right to fight for Montenegro to be a normal society. Therefore, from this iconic place for all Podgorica residents, we are once again saying - no pasaran," director Danilo Marunović said to the crowd.
They announce a new gathering on December 19th, on the Liberation Day of Podgorica, when, as they said, they will draw a line between an anti-fascist Montenegro and one that is not.
"Whoever attacks anti-fascism will quickly break their teeth. That is why we are telling them from here today: this repression is not a reflection of your strength, but of your powerlessness. And you have nothing to do with us 35 or with the thousands of citizens who are on some of your other lists, but with an idea that you cannot break," said Aleksandar Radoman from the Faculty of Montenegrin Language and Literature.
Participants in today's protest have questioned the fact that the police processed 35 participants in the July protest, five months after it took place... As a reminder, the police are charging them with disturbing public order during an unregistered gathering that was held a few hundred meters from here.
Among them are DPS MP Oskar Huter, member of the Council for Citizen Control of Police Work Aida Perović, and artist Iva Nešić, who extinguished a cigarette on police equipment.
"I am primarily an artist and I chose in the moment the way I am best able to express myself and it obviously bore fruit. If that shield had defended the interests of my country at the moment, it certainly would not have occurred to me to put out that cigarette on that shield," said Nešić.
Hutter's party says that repression cannot stop citizens' resistance to chauvinism and the rewarding of sympathizers and collaborators of the fascists from World War II.
"Those people who were in the people's patrols were not sprayed with spray or tear gas, when chauvinism and xenophobia were rampant in the streets of Podgorica and Turks were threatened with shouts of 'Kill, slaughter, so that Turks do not exist'. I was at the protest, I'm sorry that I am not among those who will be held accountable for a misdemeanor," said DPS MP Andrija Nikolić.
Recall that on July 8, several hundred citizens protested in front of the Villa Gorica against the awarding of the Thirteenth of July Award to writer Bećir Vuković, known for denying the Montenegrin nation and glorifying the Chetnik movement. They tried to reach the villa, but were prevented by the police, using chemical agents and physical force.
video: TV News
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