Milatović's subservient visit to Belgrade: Open Balkan now!

From Podgorica for NAP, written by Nevena Kovačević

During the campaign before the second round of presidential elections in Montenegro, we published an analysis of Jakov Milatović's political and ideological profile, in which we provided a series of unambiguous arguments that, even then, pointed to the fact that Jakov Milatović is a secret agent of Belgrade and Moscow, a key player who will replace, and perhaps even surpass, Vučić's most loyal servant, the former Prime Minister Dritan Abazović.

Just a few months after taking office, the correctness of our theses is confirmed. Namely, the newly elected president, by attending an event called "Open Balkan Wine Vision", as well as during previous visits to Belgrade, shaming the country he represents, has shown an unprecedented form of idol worship towards the Serbian autocrat Aleksandar Vučić.

From the videos circulating on social media, one can see, to put it mildly, clownish flattery, which, it seems, even surprised Vučić himself.

During the event organized in the style of kitschy and cheapest program content, which occupies the most airtime in the prime-time slots of the pro-regime media there, Milatović could not hide his admiration for Vučić's vast knowledge. Listening attentively to Vučić's speech dedicated to wines, Milatović asked him: - And how do you know so much about wines? -

After Vučić replied that, besides basketball, it was his only hobby, the young president made another, extremely humble statement.

- But really, wow, it's incredible how much you know. -

It was easy to notice that this level of subservient sycophancy left even Aleksandar Vučić speechless.

Moreover, observing Vučić's reaction, one gets the impression that the greatest Balkan autocrat of the new era, who has adapted the entire system to his dictatorial tendencies, was unpleasantly surprised by such open and public self-humiliation of the Montenegrin president.

Milatović's servile performance shamed even the great leader, who enjoys the daily bowing of party officials, practically signs autographs for voters at various fairs, festivals, sausage festivals, and similar events, to whom journalists spontaneously ask pre-arranged questions accompanied by inevitable praise, and whose speeches at the United Nations, due to their sharpness and courage to tell Europe and the West everything face-to-face, resonated around the world.

Because – even servility should have at least a golden mean.

No master wants excessively obedient subjects, because their excessive servility completely undermines his role. However, Milatović continued his subservient mission throughout the evening, and even the next day.

- The Balkans are most beautiful when they are open - Milatović said with a smile.

Although even the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, as one of the founders of this regional initiative, once emphasized that Open Balkan is a finished story, Milatović reminded us that it is not over as long as the leader doesn't call the end.

However, as long as there are Montenegrin subjects willing to replace Albania and take on the role of a reserve player, the dangerous intentions concerning Open Balkan clearly remain a current and ongoing threat to regional stability.

With wine and the lyrics "Give me wine, I want a mess", Milatović continued his socializing with the Open Balkan team, which, besides him and Vučić, also included Macedonian Prime Minister Dimitar Kovačevski.

During the joint press conference, he tried hard to present his master as an inclusive politician, while Vučić smirked sarcastically, criticizing the Berlin Process and clearly indicating to Europe that he is not interested in their stance on regional initiatives. First-graders, who, for example, collect football player stickers, would react more appropriately when meeting their idol.

The level of admiration for his playing abilities would certainly be more moderate than Milatović's subservient admiration for Aleksandar Vučić.

Missionary of Greater Serbia

Almost identically, Abazović behaved last year during the same event, with the caveat that, to be fair, one got the impression that the acting prime minister enjoyed himself more in New York, while in such situations he played the role of a classic contractor, carrying out the assigned task.

Precisely in this difference lies the danger – Milatović genuinely admires Vučić, so much so that he tramples on his own dignity.

If Abazović proved to be the most successful missionary of Greater Serbian nationalism in recent history, what can be expected from Milatović, who eagerly awaits every new meeting with his idol.

Besides showing boundless servility, Milatović has once again confirmed that he does not respect the institution of the president and the state he accidentally represents.

By bowing to Vučić without a shred of elementary decency, the young president has once again shown ignorance regarding his own competencies and how to act in accordance with them. Did the president of all citizens wonder if there is a shred of civic interest in his subservient visit to Belgrade, because the majority of the population of the country he accidentally represents wants to join the European Union, not Open Balkan.

Did the president perhaps wonder if he himself, with such a subservient attitude, is violating the sovereignty and territorial integrity of his own country. He did not – because for a national Montenegrin who speaks Serbian, kneeling before Vučić is more important than the position he holds.

Wine and Ideology

And while for Milatović, socializing with Vučić clearly represented a sensation he would remember for a long time, official Belgrade was given legitimacy to continue its radical campaign aimed at denying Montenegrin identity.

If anyone manages to completely destroy the civic concept of Montenegrin society, it will be declarative civic activists, eternal boys with unfulfilled ambitions, without dignity and state responsibility. Momo after Momo, or Dritan after Dritan, it's a dead race, and the essence is the same – Jakov Milatović is a follower of war instigators, those from the nineties, or these current ones, it doesn't matter.

It is not wine that connects Vučić and the Montenegrin president, but adherence to the same ideological principles. Following the ideological matrix that Momir Bulatović supported and implemented as Slobodan Milošević's servant during the nineties, his successor, by bringing the former Democratic Front back into the political game, brought the Chetnik duke Andrija Mandić to the head of the Parliament, who, like Milatović, would like to be prime minister instead of the prime minister.

So – the first task has been successfully completed.

The silence on the denial of the Montenegrin nation and the targeting of Draginja Vuksanović Stanković by the Serbian Chetnik duke Vojislav Šešelj, whose latest work meets with formal, barely expressed sharp condemnations only after journalistic questions, is just a logical continuation of the policy of subservience to official Belgrade and the exponents of pro-Serbian and pro-Russian policies.

With such obedient followers and Chetnik dukes in power, even stronger support can be expected for the realization of the regional aspirations of Greater Serbian propagandists.

Flammable Balkans

However, it seems that neither Europe, nor the West, nor the region itself, recognizes the danger posed by cooperation with Chetnik dukes, instigators, and convicted war criminals, whose policies are based on the theory of blood and soil, an ideology that resulted in conflicts and mass graves in the nineties.

With the resurgence of such ideas, the Balkans have long become an easily flammable hotbed, and war-mongering threats of Ukrainian and similar war scenarios are an integral part of the speeches of Serbian propagandists, as well as dignitaries of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

As in the nineties, so today, there is no systemic response to outbursts of ethnonationalism and chauvinism.

As then, so now, it is simpler to remain silent, while the eerie silence echoes louder and louder, and the region, without a strategy of resistance, gets used to the new reality. This new normality, in which nothing can surprise us anymore, is observed almost passively by the opposition, the international community, and even the citizens themselves, and critical voices are clearly in the minority.