Dodik also in pre-census campaign: Continuation of advocating ethnofederalism and Greater Serbian empire

By: Nevena Kovačević

Although it is not yet known whether the census in Montenegro will begin on November 1, as the Assembly session at which Andrija Mandić will be elected president of the parliament and vote for the new Government led by Milojko Spajić will be held on Monday, just two days before the official start of the census, promoters of Greater Serbian nationalism are increasingly actively conducting a pre-census campaign.

Serbian ministers Miloš Vučević and Nikola Selaković met on Thursday with representatives of the alliance of Montenegrin students, and the topic of the meeting was the possibility of using the census form as proof of national affiliation when applying for free tuition in Serbia.

This obvious attempt to buy Serbs in the upcoming census has, as expected, gone without a reaction from the Montenegrin authorities. Today, the president of Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik, joined the pre-census campaign, who, in an interview with the Russian propaganda media Sputnik, spoke about the need to create a common state of all Serbs, which would include Republika Srpska, Serbia along with Kosovo, and Montenegro.

Dodik, like Aleksandar Vučić and his spokespersons, estimates that there will be an expansion of Serbs in Montenegro, without explaining the data to support such claims.

As he said, it is necessary to hold a large pan-Serbian assembly, from which, besides him, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church, and representatives of the Serbian people from the diaspora would educate us about the difficult position and discrimination of the Serbian people throughout history.

However, we do not need some kind of assembly to hear the messages that Putinophiles and specters of criminals from the nineties bombard us with on a daily basis - we are all one people who speak the same language, and all Balkan identities are nothing more than a sub-variant of Serbian identity.

Furthermore, Dodik says, the state of all Serbs should be established by democratic decision, not by wars.

Therefore - according to Dodik's absurd logic, the decisions of the citizens of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo who wanted to gain independent states were not democratic, but the result of pressure from political actors.

Citizens were forced to vote for independence, just as Serbs do not have the right to free expression.

The mythomaniacal thesis that a lie repeated countless times becomes the truth does not work this time.

Decisions on independence were the result of the free will of the citizens of sovereign states, which Aleksandar Vučić and Milorad Dodik want to turn into Serbian-Russian colonies.

The key role in this process, of course, belongs to the Serbian Orthodox Church, and Prvoslav Perić is perhaps the most aggressive proponent of revisionist and indoctrinating views about a mono-ethnic and mono-religious people.

Dodik accused the West of contributing to the worsening position of Serbs in the region, who, he claims, do not agree to be executed.

Paradoxically, it is precisely the West's benevolent attitude towards the Hitlers and Goebbels of the new era that encourages the unimpeded expression of secessionist and imperialist ideas.

Ignoring dangerous narratives is the initial spark that can trigger regional conflicts, just as the aggression against Ukraine is a product of a neutral stance towards Vladimir Putin's secessionist threats.

Overlooking the fact that these are not fictions, but very real and fatal intentions of Slobodan Milošević's followers to achieve what he failed to do, could cost the region dearly.

Because - if one-identity rhetoric is a legitimate tool for defending the rights of falsely endangered Serbs, what will happen to those who do not want to give up their Montenegrin, Bosnian, or any other identity.

Current events give us a clear answer - they will be victims of political and prosecutorial persecution, classified as a small group of extremists and members of invented nations.

In Montenegro, for example, as the case of Boban Batrićević, a professor at the Faculty of Montenegrin Language and Literature, shows, critical views regarding the destructive actions of the Serbian Orthodox Church are treated as hate speech and a violation of public order and peace.

The announcements of proponents of ethno-territorialism are nothing more than open threats of persecution against those who disobey and do not accept the abolition of their nation and the imposition of recognition of another's identity instead of their own, and ultimately, towards proven more radical methods such as ethnic cleansing of non-Serb peoples.

Dodik's pre-census messages worry the opposition, but, without a doubt, the reaction of Montenegrin officials will be absent, or we will witness another relativizing outburst from President Jakov Milatović, who, instead of responding to Dodik, will once again deal with Western partners and regional allies.

For now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement, telling Dodik to refrain from nationalist and expansionist rhetoric.

The Bosniak Party called on the international community to condemn Dodik's speech, because, as they said, the time for redrawing borders in the region has passed.

The region, unfortunately, does not have leaders who would oppose ethnofederalists.

Young leaders are more willing to kneel before Vučić and Dodik than to condemn their fascistoid statements.

On the contrary, those who did not remain silent were, and still are, labeled as dictators.

And the international community still does not take the seemingly harmless games of Russian-Serbian imperialists seriously.

As long as we allow them to "vent" and silently observe the destruction of sovereign states, as in Montenegro, the region will not be safe.