Vučić's propaganda and Milatović's dangerous relativizations!

From Podgorica for NAP, Nevena Kovačević

That the census in Montenegro is a strategically important issue for official Belgrade, and that the aggressive pre-census campaign will not be abandoned until this questionable process of legitimacy is completed, is also shown by the new chauvinistic statements of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

Namely, yesterday, on the eve of the meeting with the Quint representatives on the topic of de-escalation and the continuation of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, Vučić, during his usual pathetic speech in Šabac, said that someone who is Serbian and has not cursed Belgrade cannot be in the Government of Montenegro.

Regarding the upcoming population census, he asserted that Serbs are being prevented from freely declaring themselves, which is a common propaganda thesis of all those participating in the realization of the official Belgrade plan.

- When the time comes for the census, and it's delayed, then, oh, don't conduct the census because there will be more Serbs. And what do you outsiders want? To erase the names and surnames of Serbs. You will not live to see that day. We will protect both Serbia and our people. We have not stood on anyone's shadow for 10 or 11 years, we have not hurt or offended anyone, we have sought the best relations with everyone. We are descendants of the heroes of Cer and Kolubara.

We will not boast in vain. We will preserve peace and stability. Serbia will progress even faster, in spite of all those who want to abolish our surnames - said, among other things, the Serbian president. Sharp reactions followed from representatives of the Montenegrin opposition, who assessed Vučić's chauvinistic statements as a gross interference in the internal affairs of Montenegro, and an additional reason to boycott the census.

They called on President Jakov Milatović and the constituents of the current, as well as the announced new Government, to condemn Vučić's interference in the census process.

Late last night, with his usual relativizing tone, President Milatović responded.

- The issue of forming the Government of Montenegro, as well as the issue of the census, are internal matters of our state, its citizens and institutions. I consider comments from foreign officials on this matter, regardless of whether they come from the US, the European Union, or Serbia, to be inappropriate. Montenegro is a sovereign, civic, and democratic country - Milatović wrote on social network X.

An almost identical message to the one he recently sent regarding the open threats of Serbian Minister of Defense Miloš Vučević, who predicted a Ukrainian scenario for Montenegro if Serbs were not part of the newly formed Government.

The President, who is obliged by his constitutional powers to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the state, has instead resorted to a new form of shameful relativization of the autocratic views of the Serbian dictator, which are full of elements of neo-Nazi propaganda.

Milatović, who has lost himself in his own unsuccessful attempt to play the role of a good balancer, cannot understand that allies and destabilizers of the region cannot be placed in the same context.

It is dangerous to equate well-intentioned messages from Western partners with Vučić's inappropriate pushing of Montenegro into the mire of the Serbian world.

The relativizing statement by Milatović is made even more absurd by the position taken just yesterday by EU spokesperson Peter Stano - that they do not want to comment on individual entities that will form the new government. The President is clearly afraid of a direct response to Aleksandar Vučić and does not dare to address him in a language even remotely similar to the one he used a few days ago to address the European Parliament rapporteur Tonino Picula.

In fear, logically, one resorts to relativization and feigning neutrality.

In addition to not responding to Vučić, the president of all citizens has not informed us whose microphone Vučić is using and who his microphones are in Montenegro, whether, and from whom, the Serbian president receives certain data on which he bases his assessments, and whether, based on his positions, it can be assumed that he possesses information that clearly indicates possible falsification of census figures.

By avoiding answering these questions, Milatović has legitimized the pre-census campaign that undermines state sovereignty, as well as the one that promotes the idea - all Serbs in one state.

He is very vocal when he needs to talk about friendship and good neighborly relations with Belgrade on his knees, but when he needs to protect state interests, his tongue seems to get tied.

And indeed - there are too many similarities in the relationship between Vučić and Milatović, with the relationship that Slobodan Milošević and Momir Bulatović had. Therefore, it is not surprising that Bulatović is glorified, because the newly elected president clearly sees himself as his successor.

The ideology he follows has long been deciphered.

Government reactions were absent

Regarding Vučić's comments on the census, no one from the technical government, nor from the potential government of Milojko Spajić, has spoken out.

None of the announced constituents minded the interference of another country in Montenegro's processes. Dritan Abazović's URA called on Vučić not to incite national tensions ahead of the census. The most loyal player, the technical prime minister, in a tried and tested practice, responds with silence.

The absence of a reaction from the future prime minister Milojko Spajić is a new and unambiguous confirmation of the direction of his cabinet's political and strategic actions. Relativizers and silent observers are equally dangerous to Montenegro.

A prerequisite for the existence of a sovereign, civic, and democratic state is stable government, firmly oriented towards Western values and capable of defending itself from the encroachments of Belgrade and Moscow. Montenegro has a government composed of a group of individuals inadequate for the functions they perform and who came to them through a series of accidental, and for Montenegro unfortunate, circumstances.

Whether they secretly or openly bow to the great leaders Vladimir Putin and Aleksandar Vučić and their exponent, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the ideological matrix of all actors in the August 30th majority is identical - a subservient attitude towards official Belgrade and a striving towards the East.

The voice of those within that majority who might think differently is so negligible that Vučić, unlike regarding Kosovo, can sleep soundly regarding the Montenegrin plan.

And while the government silently serves, citizens' distrust in the legitimacy of the census is growing, and voices calling for a boycott as the only legitimate means of resistance and non-acceptance of ethnic engineering are becoming louder.