Good morning. You’re reading a daily contextual review of the news that marked the previous day.
By Ljubomir Filipović, CdM observer
Aggressive driving of government-owned vehicles
Even though a large part of the campaign and criticism of the former opposition tackled misuse of government-owned vehicles, the practice seemed to continue as soon as the new members took over. Cars are used for private matters during holidays and weekends, while officials drive aggressively and don’t obey traffic rules. It’s the case with Mr Nikola Kandić, a deputy secretary-general of the government, who, according to available information, drives a black Mercedes PG CG 014. The former lawyer had a car accident near Palada with this same car, and after the incident, another vehicle license plate was spotted. Even though there were speculations that he refused to do an alcohol use identification test, the police stated he had been tested. They didn’t reveal further details. A number of people soon contacted us and told the same Mercedes was spotted while disobeying traffic rules during April. Driving through red lights and so on.
Erasing minority nations
The analysis of Dnevne Novine daily gives elaboration on what we’ve been hearing over the past few days – the research over voter duplication, which should erase a part of people from the electoral roll. Even though the government says this move of the State Election Commission might be controversial due to a possible personal information leak, the Ministry of Internal Affairs presented their own methodology for determining people with dual citizenship. At first sight, two processes with little connection, but in fact are very compatible. However, many believe that our government and parliamentary majority target the diaspora, particularly minority nations.
MP Genci Nimanbegu shares this opinion and in an interview for Pobjeda daily, he speaks about this and other important topics.
Echoes of clumsy diplomacy
Although our government committed to sticking to the determined foreign policy priorities of our country, it was done unwillingly and with lack of support by the larger part of the new parliamentary majority. In all those internal discrepancies, it looks like our government is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. It looks weak, sometimes hysterical and causes distrust of partners, sometimes even looks like a call for more aggressive behavior of those who are not political but are economic partners of Montenegro. Our foreign affairs minister tries to justify sanctions against Russia, and it sounds like he wants to tell he’s forced by the EU and the USA to impose them, not because Russia should be punished for its irresponsible and aggressive behavior in the international relations.
Not only that it looks pathetic but is rather a call for Russia to “force” Montenegro to do something, as it sounds like that according to Minister Radulović’s claim. It’s the story behind all that fuss about planes. Now we’ll see whether it’ll be like that. Will China respond similarly to the behavior of our government – we shall see. However, this is not about our views, but how consistent and firm and value-based they are. Ms Gordana Đurović and Mr Srđan Vukadinović told more about it in this text. Minister Milatović bragged about hotel occupancy during Easter holidays and it’s as if he wants to tell that his visit to Mr Dodik and Mr Bato Carević’s tour largely contributed to it. It must have been that their Serbia-oriented “diplomacy” was the reason why there were many Kosovo cars in the Montenegrin coast these days. I don’t think so.
Read the interview of the French Ambassador Christian Thimonier, who didn’t support the Montenegrin independence ahead of the referendum and is greatly approving of the Serbian policy and Serbian interests in the region. It’s a quite delicate filed for him having in mind the role of France during 1918 – the topic mentioned every day since last year. He’s the first French ambassador to actively take part in the public, and he even visited the Montenegrin Orthodox Church. It’s to be seen whether he’ll be able to recognize threats and challenges in this society and whether he’ll manage to build up confidence of this distrustful part of the public.
Herceg Novi
As elections in Herceg Novi are about to take place, the conflict between the DF and Democrats seems to escalate. The DF voiced dismay over the fact that Bishop Joanikije publicly backs Mr Aleksa Bečić and Democrats in these elections, as was the case in Nikšić. The DF accuses Democrats and their partner – the PM – that they’re not Serbs enough as they recognize Kosovo, while Democrats accuse the DF of not being good Serbs because they voted for “such Constitution”. While they’re arguing over who’s better in being a Serb, patriotic convoys in Herceg Novi show there’re still many people who’re not part of this story. The only state-centered party in this election will be the DPS, as the SDP gave up on the elections. The Civic Movement URA, which won’t be a decisive factor – probably never again – wants to concrete the seafloor over in their fantasies about the tunnel from Zelenika to Luštica. It’s interesting to watch how some green activists from Boka, who had been fighting fiercely to protect Mamula, now promote concreting the seafloor in the bay.
It’s all for today. Have a nice day.
