You are reading a daily contextual review of the news that marked the previous day.
By Ljubomir Filipović, CdM observer
The news of the day yesterday was a conference of the National Anti-Corruption Council. As we have assumed, the Council will deal with the former government and thus strengthen the position of the current Government under the guise of fighting corruption. But the issue of apartments that were given under “favorable terms” is a very important issue and the practice that should be stopped. While a large number of families in Montenegro do not have a roof over their heads, the class of officials shared apartments at ridiculous prices. These are some of the officials cited by MANS as an example of this practice. If there is unethical behavior in this, and I think there is, this is certainly not about corruption, but about bad governance, and this can by no means be the topic of the National Anti-Corruption Council, especially not the one that should control the current Government and not be the pursuer of its political opponents.
DPS MP Predrag Bošković said that the government itself published information about this in the last mandate, and that it is a lie that 119 apartments were provided during the mandate of the technical government. As the DPS MP points out, whenever it comes to answering questions of interest for the future of Montenegro, discussed are the stories about alleged corruption and fabricated scandals.
Emil Labudović’s misogyny
Mr Emilo Labudović, a veteran of war-mongering journalism, director of the Serbian House built by Mr Aleksandar Vučić, from which Mr Zdravko Krivokapić led the headquarters for the elections after which he became prime minister, wrote a text full of insults at the expense of MP Draginja Vuksanović Stanković on the portal founded by the chancellor of the University of Montenegro. It was a manifesto of misogyny with all the standard chauvinistic stereotypes and general places you can think of. The Government is silent, and so are NGOs. The only one who reacted was the Speaker of Parliament, who was previously accused of a sexist comment sent to MP Vuksanović Stanković.
Fierce criticism of Vučić
Yesterday, President Milo Đukanović referred to the interview of Mr Aleksandar Vučić in which he accused him of “cave nationalism”. You can see the entire statement in which he rightly calls Mr Vučić a promoter of Greater Serbia politics here.
The President also announced that after the Sveti Stefan incident, in which the mayor of Budva participated, the Amman Resorts company could leave Montenegro and seek €100m through international arbitration.
Kavač clan member’s arrest
Yesterday, the police announced the arrest of Mr Slobodan Kašćelan, whom the police mark as the leader of the Kavač clan. He was ordered to be detained for up to 72 hours. The detention of the alleged members of the clan – Krsto Maroš, Miloš Radonjić and Vladimir Vucković, was also ordered, after they were questioned at the Special State Prosecutor’s Office. See what the arrest looked like.
Buying time
Dnevne Novine was informed yesterday that the Parliament had more work to do than deal with the dismissal of Vladimir Leposavić, and that it will be decided when it’s turn comes. In this way, the Government and the new majority keep themselves from facing unpleasant decisions, but more importantly, they give Mr Leposavić time to complete what he was appointed to do – to secure the privileged position of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro. I wrote a short comment on this topic for CdM yesterday.
Prosecutor’s Office
The delay in the election of the head of the Supreme Court also affects the work, operation and tasks of the Judicial Council, a body whose constitutional role has been made meaningless and marginalized by a series of “previous moves”, said the President of the Judicial Council Vesna Simović Zvicer.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe’s resolution on the post-monitoring dialogue with Montenegro, with an amendment, requires that the recommendations of the Venice Commission be respected when passing prosecutorial laws.
In addition, the document is one-sided and biased. While praising the adoption of amendments to the Law on Freedom of Religion, with a brief statement that “they regret that the debate was no longer inclusive”, it calls attacks on minorities isolated incidents.
URA’s unrests
It has long been rumored that one URA’s wing, led by the president of the political council Žarko Rakčević may leave the party due to this party leader’s identification and rapprochement with the DF. That could be recognized in yesterday’s statement by the URA’s official and academician Šerbo Rastoder to the Gradski Radio (City Radio) in Podgorica.
That’s it for today. See you tomorrow at the same time.
