MONTENEGRINS ON THE STREETS OF PODGORICA: There are many of us and we won't give up Montenegro, we won't join the Serbian world

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - The fourth protest of the IMA NAS movement is underway in front of the Parliament of Montenegro in Podgorica, which, according to the organisers' estimates, is attended by around 20,000 citizens.

Their goals are clear: repeal of the Law on the President, dialogue and unblocking of the Constitutional Court, calling early parliamentary elections, and halting the accession to the Open Balkan initiative.

Vice President and MP of the DPS, Jevto Eraković, stated that this is a struggle for the survival of Montenegro.

“Let us not allow a mad wind to extinguish the torch of our freedom. Look at these scarecrows who want to ravage everything that has fallen to them, but we are not afraid. Let us oppose the treacherous mixture with the power of reason. You know how they say – A wolf never caused an itch, but a louse did. The traitors of this country fear elections. This is a struggle for the survival of Montenegro. This spring must be Montenegrin, a spring of elections. So let it thunder, let torrents flow from Montenegrin streets to wash away this filth. Wake up, Montenegro, the Montenegrin spring is coming”, he said.

Journalist Tanja Pavićević addressed the gathered protesters, emphasising that for more than two years “we have been enduring the falsification, lawlessness, and dismantling of our state for the interests of others.”

Citizens at the rally chanted "Dritan, you scoundrel." 

“We are witnessing an assault on the State. We are watching the conscious and malicious destruction of institutions, unscrupulous partitocracy, trampling on the Constitution. All this, so that they can lead us, divided, disenfranchised, poor, as far as possible from the dreamed-of membership in the European Union”, Pavićević said.

We are here, the journalist believes, to tell Dritan Abazović and “the other servants of Vučić” that instead of the Open Balkan, we choose an open Europe.

And instead of the Serbian world, she added, only the world.

“Their misdeeds have awakened the citizens. Citizens aware that the Government does not protect the national interests of Montenegro. Citizens aware that the Government of Montenegro is leading the country, through full assimilation, to Serbia's feet. They won't succeed”, Pavićević said.

Because, as she pointed out, there are those of us who want Montenegro to realise its right to its European path.

“There are those of us who hate no one. Who sympathise with our Serbian friends and other peoples in Serbia who have been living in darkness for a full 12 years, under the boot of an autocratic regime. THERE ARE THOSE OF US who believe that Serbia will wake up.

There are those of us who are ashamed of Dubrovnik, the deportation of Bosniaks/Muslims, who loudly say that genocide occurred in Srebrenica. There are those of us who know the true role of the Serbian Orthodox Church”, emphasised journalist Pavićević.

Speaking at the protest, she said that there are those of us who want peace and a civil society, who fight for civil rights and freedoms.

“And while for the outgoing government and their service providers, public and private, our path is extremism, for us it is taking full responsibility before ourselves, our children, and history. And that is why we will not back down. Because we have neither a backup path nor a backup state. We only have our Montenegro. Our choice is both easy and difficult – but the only correct one. May it be eternal”, concluded Pavićević.