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Ten to Eight – PM’s sermon

You are reading a daily contextual review of the news that marked the previous day.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister stirred up emotions throughout Montenegro. He said that this Government will not arrest priests, because there is not only the material world. Something like that. He spoke again of 70 “godless years” and the like. It is not clear to me who the Prime Minister rebuked, because according to the last census from 2011, only 1.31% of Montenegrins are atheists, which is around 7,000 people. Yesterday, as a believer, I felt uncomfortable, because no one, not even the Prime Minister, has the right to impose their views on anyone, not even those who do not believe in God. The Prime Minister, as the head of the executive power, as a state official, must not do anything to make any social group feel discriminated against, because our rights in this country are not determined by whether we believe or do not believe in something or someone. And he did it yesterday, saying that these people were wrongly taught and brought up for 70 years not to believe. I had a few things to say about the Prime Minister’s statement and debate on religion in Montenegro.

URA dissolving – resignation of leader in Herceg Novi

URA was launched as a civic movement and many people approached it with the best of intentions. As soon as they started to compromise their values, a large number of people left them. After the first signs that Mr Abazović wanted close cooperation with undemocratic groups that inherit extreme right-wing ideas, the leaders of their initial council from 2015 left the party. Messrs. Branko Lukovac, Rade Bojović, Boban Batrićević – these are just some of those who quickly realized what it was all about. As time went on and as the compromises increased, so did the dissolving continue – committee leaders from Berane, and then Ms Maja Beriša from Tivat. Since the elections, the number of people leaving URA has been large, while their ranks are filled by Chetniks and opportunists. Many of those who are leaving are silent, but not the vice-president of the Herceg Novi committee, Mr Sreten Antunović, who revealed to us yesterday that, among other things, DPM Abazović has loved to publicly humiliate people at meetings since he came to power. It would be good for him to tell us a little more about it.

Prosecutor’s Office: Police should have arrested driver

An incident caused by drunk driving unmasked the processes in the Government. It unmasked arrogance, irresponsibility, readiness to cover up and hide things from the public. Police say they still don’t know who drove the car, although the whole of Montenegro knows pretty well about it. The Prosecutor’s Office is investigating whether the license plates were changed and openly says that, due to the amount of alcohol in the blood, after causing the accident, the man should have ended up in prison.

Change of Vanja Ćalović’s attitude

“Bearing in mind that neither Stanković (the acting Supreme State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković), and especially Mr Katnić, gave any results when it comes to the fight against corruption and organized crime, I think it was expected from the ruling majority to reach for some changes that will enable it to bypass the two-thirds majority imposed on them by the Constitution. As for the dismissals themselves, I think that is expected and justified”, said Ms Vanja Ćalović in February, when the procedure was supposed to include a change in the Law on Special Prosecutor’s Office, which was withdrawn after an external intervention.

Now it seems that there is a problem with the new “Dritan‘s” law, which the Deputy Prime Minister convinced us to be harmonized with European partners. Ms Ćalović warned that, despite the justified criticism of the work of the Prosecutor’s Office, the political intervention of the executive power sets a precedent that would lead to the fact that every subsequent change of government and prosecutors become politically similar. In essence, a bull is slaughtered for a kilo of meat.

Dissonance between Abazović and Brđanin

Last night, the Police Directorate head Zoran Brđanin denied on Petar Komnenić’s talk-show several pieces of information that came from the Government in the previous period. First, it was the obvious fake news placed by some media about the intercepted conversation in which the murder of Mr Zoran Ašanin and the Deputy Prime Minister was announced. “We approach each information with special care and what is the rule is that we take security measures until the danger is eliminated or it is determined that the information is incorrect or that danger is no longer certain”.

Who is Veljko Kuštrov, the future Montenegrin de facto ambassador in Berlin?

A businessman from Trebinje close to the Serbian Orthodox Church, Mr Veljko Kuštrov, is the most serious candidate for the special envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, Pobjeda has learnt. Pobjeda’s source from the parliamentary majority announced that Mr Kuštrov should be appointed at one of the next cabinet meetings. “Mr Kuštrov was presented to PM Krivokapić as a person with excellent contacts and ties in Germany – a country that is the first foreign policy ally according to the priorities of the Government”, said Pobjeda’s source from the parliamentary majority.

That’s it for today and for this week. Enjoy the weekend, if you can.

 

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