PODCAST WITH NEVENA - Belan: Vučić also seeks a part for a Greater Serbia in Montenegro

(Patria) - In a new podcast of the Patria News Agency, hosted in Podgorica by Nevena Kovačević, the president of the Liberal Party of Montenegro and one of the leaders of the European Alliance, Vatroslav Belan spoke about the idea of the "Serbian world", relations between Serbia and Montenegro, and the significance of Montenegrin independence.

Belan assessed that advocates of the "Serbian world" concept are long-term building a political narrative aimed at creating conditions for the realisation of great-state projects.

"Today they are laying the foundations for such geopolitical circumstances that would allow the army to return to Kosovo, to reach the Adriatic Sea through Montenegro, to reabsorb Montenegro as some kind of electoral unit of Serbia, and for the Republika Srpska to secede from Bosnia and Herzegovina and join the so-called Serbian world," said Belan.

Speaking about the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, Belan said that through political messages and narratives, an effort is being made to shape the consciousness of younger generations.

"Vučić is not an unintelligent man. He very consciously says that Montenegro seceded from Serbia, creating the perception that it was once an integral part of it. Such narratives primarily serve internal political needs and waiting for geopolitical circumstances that would enable the realisation of the idea of a Greater Serbia," stated Belan.

Recalling the referendum on Montenegro's independence on 21 May 2006, Belan said that for him it represented the realisation of a lifelong dream.

"I started engaging in politics precisely with the goal of Montenegro becoming an independent state. That was the reason I joined the Liberal Alliance of Montenegro," he said.

Asked whether Montenegro would be better off today if it had remained in the union with Serbia, Belan replied that citizens can judge that possibility for themselves.

"Can the citizens of Montenegro imagine that their key head of state is Aleksandar Vučić, that the media are under his control, and that issues like Kosovo still burden them and slow down the development of democratic institutions?" Belan asked.

He concluded that independence enabled Montenegro to independently organise its society and political system, and that citizens decide on the future of the state through democratic processes.

Watch the entire conversation between Belan and Nevena Kovačević below.