Europeans encourage Spajić's government while ignoring uncontrolled outbursts of rampant chauvinism

Written by: Nevena Kovačević

Reading the messages of European officials after the intergovernmental conference with Montenegro, one might think that the former regional leader in the EU integration process is once again on the doorstep of the Union. The election of Milorad Marković as Supreme State Prosecutor and the end of the four-year acting status undoubtedly represent a significant step forward.

However, few MPs in the Montenegrin parliament raised their hands in support of Marković as a vote for reform processes. The true intentions of the parliamentary majority are best illustrated by videos posted on social media just a day after the parliamentary session.

The Speaker of the Parliament, Chetnik vojvoda Andrija Mandić, attended the so-called Saint Sava Ball in Nikšić, where, in the company of MPs from the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, he celebrated to the song "From the Head of Zeta to the Town of Spuž," whose chorus begins with the lyrics "Turks are fleeing, Muslim women are wailing"...

These same fascist obscenities were, as a reminder, sung last year in an almost manic trance by the Mayor of Nikšić, Marko Kovačević, at an Orthodox New Year celebration with three raised fingers, as well as by members of Orthodox brotherhoods close to the Serbian Orthodox Church, when on July 13, 2022, they were allowed through by the police to provoke a conflict with citizens peacefully celebrating Statehood Day on Nikšić's main square.

Nevertheless, the fact that such events have become part of everyday life after the arrival of the liberation authorities does not make them any less horrifying and shameful, nor should they fly under the radar as some kind of new normal—one they want us to get used to and accept as such.

No one from the Europe Now movement has commented on the new primitive outbursts of their coalition partners. The West's preoccupation with judicial reforms is evidently a convenient circumstance for Spajić and his ministers, whose complete dependence on Russian-Serbian agents is no longer even attempted to be concealed.

The sudden silencing of warnings from the international community regarding the disastrous consequences of including constituents of the For the Future of Montenegro coalition in the executive branch indicates a renewed, post-Abazović shortsightedness or hypocrisy, thereby encouraging Spajić's silence and the continuation of radical nationalist orgies by dreamers of restoring Dušan's Empire.

To complete the Saint Sava darkness, the Montenegrin public service took care by broadcasting an event held in Bijelo Polje, called the Saint Sava Academy, on the parliamentary channel, which, as its name suggests, is intended for informing about the work of the Parliament and its working bodies.

The broadcast of the Saint Sava parade, from which revisionist messages were spread through speeches by Serbian Orthodox Church dignitaries Porfirije, Joanikije, and Metodije, as well as director Emir Kusturica, is justified by RTCG management as being in the public interest. Promoting Saint Savaism—an ideology that incites religious and ethnic hatred—is neither in the public interest nor in line with the constitutionally defined principle of secularism.

However, historical reinterpretations evidently provide room for inventing regulations that can place criminal ideologies in a positive context, reducing them to the concept of public interest. The onslaught of Saint Savaism is a continuation of aggressive efforts aimed at undermining coexistence and multi-ethnic harmony, and destroying the remnants of the civic concept of the state.

A government that includes those who call representatives of minority peoples Turks, Albanians, Ustashas, singing about killing them, invoking a new Srebrenica, is neither reformist nor pro-European.

The ideological matrix based on the rot of Chetnikism and genocidal policies throws Montenegro at the feet of hybrid warriors who, playing a borderless game with the West, manage regional circumstances. The story of democratizing society under the leadership of the Europe Now movement, whose MP Darko Dragović, from the parliamentary podium, measuring the level of Montenegrin-ness of DPS MP Oskar Huter, hints at the need to settle accounts with the so-called non-autochthonous Montenegrins, is a fairy tale without a happy ending.

The national flag of Serbia, placed in the office of the Chetnik vojvoda, as we recently heard, did not bother the EU Ambassador to Montenegro, Oana Cristina Popa; instead, after the meeting, they resorted to distancing themselves through protocol, which is a parliamentary competence.

So, if there is silence on the degradation of the state and advocacy for changing state symbols, why would there not be silence on the fascist views and messages of the newly formed government, led by Mandić, who, along with his coalition comrades, thoroughly enjoys realizing a decades-long dream.

Spajić, who is unable to control the surge of nationalism by members of Milatović's faction within his own parliamentary group, remains a silent observer, preoccupied with "economic" issues.

As the super-sitters would say—we are fine, as long as the previous ones don't return. By accepting the reality offered to us by the liberators, pushing us into a bottomless abyss, we also accept the uniformity of the Serbian world.

Because the centrists, every single one of them, in cooperation with the radical right, act exclusively in service of realizing the regional aspirations of the Serbian autocrat.

All those who cannot or do not want to understand this are direct or indirect accomplices of the creators of the sinister plan for a new Montenegro and a new Bosnia and Herzegovina, by completely falling under the wing of the Greater Serbian imperialist project, and the Saint Sava-Chetnik celebrations are the real and most horrifying depiction of that sediment, full of bloodthirsty defenders of endangered Serbianness and haters of all different identities.