Good morning! Vijesti was the first to announce that the former prime minister Markovic finally found courage to set up a party. RTNK announced that it might be called the European Reform Party. What can we expect from it, and can it hinder the current actors?
Dusko Markovic’s party
There have been rumors for years about the conflict between Djukanovic and Markovic, but nothing ever happened. At least in the public. After the DPS was overthrown, Markovic appeared in public several times, mildly criticizing the DPS. Earlier, there were speculations that Markovic would leave the DPS, but nothing ever happened. Nothing’s happening now either, but both Vijesti and RTNK have the insider information.
Vijesti has long demonstrated support for Markovic, even their reporter Jelena Jovanovic couldn’t hide her sympathies for him in a show, when she said that after she had heard all messages from SKY communications, she didn’t hear the name of the former prime minister and chief of the secret intelligence service a single time, except when criminals were mentioning him in a negative context.
There’s no doubt that Markovic was popular among some DPS supporters and his exit from the party and setting up his own would affect the DPS, now encouraged by the election results in Budva and Andrijevica. His success depends on many factors, primarily his engagement and capabilities.
It’ll also depend on the courage to openly and fiercely confront all the DPS skeletons from the past. If the message is not at times honestly and painfully critical, their position will be more complicated. It carries the risk of an open conflict with the DPS, while the eventual dirty campaign from both sides might leave catastrophic consequences, first of all for the DPS.
Although Markovic was harsh during campaign before the 2020 election, it’s expected that his rhetoric won’t be nationalist or identity-oriented, rather reconciling. We shall see the direction of his party, but it looks to me that apart from the leader’s charisma, they have nothing new to offer on this already differentiated political stage.
If the name of the party is like they say, just see how generic it is. It’s likely that the ideology and major narrative would be the same. A kind of bureaucratized mixture of the DPS, PES and Democrats. I doubt there’s any getting away from it, but we shall see.
What’s for sure is that this party will be loyal to Montenegro, and loyal to the Euro-Atlantic path of Montenegro. If not based solely on the DPS voters and proves successful in attracting the abstained, for which they will be needing somewhat harsher criticizing of the former party, then we might expect them to introduce a new value and be the bridge of collaboration far beyond the bloc divisions after the August 2020 elections that was good only for Serbian nationalists.
All in all, it’s an interesting event. It’s interesting from many aspects, as the arrest of Djukanovic is being announced, IBAR, as well as the fall of the government. If all this happens, it will be interesting to watch the dynamics of new relations and the distribution of forces at the Montenegrin political stage.
That’s all for today. Enjoy the rest of your day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM observer and columnist
(The opinions and views of our columnists aren’t necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
