Census in Montenegro: Instead of respecting EP recommendations, new confrontation between officials and the international community

By: Nevena Kovačević

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Montenegro a few days ago, along with
amendments concerning the upcoming population census, which is planned to be held from November 1 to 15.

The amendments were submitted by EP rapporteur for Montenegro Tonino Picula and socialist MEP Pedro Marques.

The messages from the European parliamentarians are clear and unambiguous – the long-overdue census should be postponed and the process conducted in accordance with international and EU standards, only after the political deadlock is resolved, i.e., the country emerges from its deep political and institutional crisis. They also suggest that the population census must not be used to deepen social polarization.

Although as many as 529 MEPs supported the European Parliament's resolution, this document, by all accounts, holds no significance whatsoever for Montenegrin officials. Instead of respecting the recommendations regarding the postponement of the census, sharp and inappropriate messages were sent from the highest state addresses, directed at rapporteur Tonino Picula.

First, on the eve of the presentation of the report on Montenegro and the adoption of the resolution that includes the issue of the population census, the President of the state, Jakov Milatović, commenting on Picula's views, said that he would not like to be the microphone for local politicians from Montenegro.

The president told citizens that the announced boycott is illegal, implying that those who decide to do so could face misdemeanor sanctions, although no such provision is foreseen by either the Constitution or the Law on Population, Households, and Dwellings.

However, the president's unfounded claims, based on ignorance of the regulations of the country he presides over, were very quickly refuted by reputable lawyers and representatives of the professional public.

The EP resolution was also discussed at yesterday's session of the Government in a technical mandate. Caretaker Prime Minister Dritan Abazović sent a direct message to European partners – he is not interested in what the international community thinks about the census. Although he stated that this position also applies to the region, recent meetings with the Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church during his stay in Podgorica, and with representatives of the Serbian authorities, are a clear refutation of the stated claim, and an indicator of what we have known for a long time – Abazović will remain loyal to official Belgrade until his last day in the prime minister's chair.

Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović said that the census will take place and that Tonino Picula is trying to push through a non-binding resolution. Although it is true that the EP resolution is not a legally binding document, its respect in a democratic society, with a government following EU policy, would be unquestionable.

However, knowing that Abazović's Government is determined to carry out the order long received from the closest neighborhood, the ignoring of warnings coming from Europe is not surprising. It is neither the first nor the last time that constructive criticism and well-intentioned recommendations are silently observed. However, what is fundamentally worrying is the response of state officials, which undoubtedly represents an open confrontation with representatives of the international community, similar to the speeches of their supreme commander Aleksandar Vučić and his ideologue Slobodan Milošević.

A subservient government, neo-Chetnik campaigns, aspirations to change the ethnic structure and abolish one nation, as an introduction to the process of territorial disintegration – a scenario of the dark nineties, with a changed conductor and better disguised executors.

The coordinated and increasingly aggressive actions of Serbian and Montenegrin pro-regime media and the Serbian Orthodox Church, accompanied by the non-transparent actions of institutions, and the appointment of members of census commissions and enumerators along family and party lines, have only one goal – to classify Montenegrins among the less numerous peoples in their own country through manipulatively collected and statistically unorganized data.

Abazović has undoubtedly proven to be the most successful missionary of the Greater Serbian nationalism policy, even more successful than those for whom such a policy has been the sole programmatic principle for decades.

Responsibility is shifted to Spajić's Government

During the Government session, the initiative of the national councils of minority peoples, who also demanded the postponement of the census, was also discussed, and the stance regarding the European Parliament's resolution was somewhat corrected.

Namely, the prime minister and some ministers, with hindsight, came to the conclusion that the initiatives to postpone the census might still be considered, but they agreed that the next Government should deal with such an assessment.

Guided by the alleged unconstitutional plan of the newly formed majority – to hold two parliamentary sessions on October 26, by electing Andrija Mandić as the head of parliament at the first session, after which he would schedule the second session at which a new executive government would be elected, the technical government is trying to shift the ball into someone else's court.

However, since Spajić's potential government did not participate in the preparation of the census, the possibility of deciding on its postponement is also questionable.

And it is superfluous to argue about the stance of the newly formed government, knowing that, although it is formally led by the Europe Now movement, the control stick will be in the hands of the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, and that their initial minority support essentially reflects the value orientation of the new executive authority, composed of predominantly pro-Serbian parties, and representatives of the Albanian Alliance and the Albanian Forum, who nevertheless accepted the offered positions.
And while the opposition decisively calls for resorting to a legitimate boycott of the census without control mechanisms and opposition participation in the work of census commissions, and citizens continue with protests, the August 30th proponents calmly observe the ongoing processes.

However, the sharpness of the messages that are part of the pre-census campaigns indicates a certain dose of pessimism among the lovers of the Russian-Serbian world.

Realizing that the spark of indomitable Montenegrin resistance is indeed beginning to shine, revisionists are becoming more aggressive and louder, because – as long as there is a shred of civic spirit in the foundations of the state, the theory of Montenegro as compensation for the lost Kosovo will not be a simple process in practice, despite the efforts of all those involved in its realization.