“Your current government has proven to be politically immature, and the parties that support it as a random coalition of political amateurs and enemies of its independence,” says Korac, assessing that “a catastrophically incompetent government cannot be seriously reconstructed.”
DNEVNE: The three-member ruling coalition in Montenegro, after numerous disagreements, is trying to agree on a government reshuffle. How do you assess the Montenegrin political scene?
KORAC: If the last elections in Montenegro were held under the slogan “just to overthrow the DPS”, now the new slogan is “just so there are no new elections”. Because objectively, all members of the ruling coalition are afraid of them. Maybe in the beginning a little less Democrats, but after the events in Cetinje and the catastrophic results of the work of the Government, they are perhaps the most afraid now. The broken concept of Montenegro as a state will surely have its price in the elections.
DNEVNE: What, or how much price?
KORAC: The principled acceptance that it will no longer be an “expert government” and, say, the acceptance of the comic idea of Medojevic replacing Abazovic as vice president “for security” will not be accepted by many of their previous voters.
By the way, this self-proclaimed Montenegrin Pancho Villa would like to abolish the parties and arrest their leaders without indictment and trial. He was not so morally radical when he wrote paid columns for a mafia newspaper in Belgrade against my government, which was owned by the Zemun clan! Was my government then supposed to issue a warrant and ask for his arrest?
DNEVNE: Then why the story of reconstruction?
KORAC: The reconstruction proposal seems to me to be a postponement of the inevitable – an election. And to get some more party leaders and activists employed in state bodies. This catastrophically incompetent government cannot be seriously reconstructed. Well, it was attacked more by the members of the ruling coalition than the opposition, which is a special paradox.
EU integration has been halted due to the incompetence of ministers, but also a lack of clear ideas on how to proceed in transition. Everything that was promised was not done, except for the revocation of the first-instance verdict against the bearers of the attempted coup d'etat on the day of announcing the results of the penultimate parliamentary elections in Montenegro. It is not a small thing for this Government, Mandic and Knezevic have reason to rejoice.
DNEVNE: After all, what is Montenegro like today?
KORAC: The picture of today's Montenegro is gloomy. From a small country successful in transition, it has become another Balkan patient. And that is the highest price that the citizens of Montenegro will pay, the change of the image of it in the world. It had a high degree of integration of minorities into the political system, it seemed to have clear political goals: NATO and the EU. Now Montenegro acts as a state that can be tampered with by the Serbian Orthodox Church, Serbia or Russia. The current government of Montenegro has proven to be politically immature, and the parties that support it as a random coalition of political amateurs and enemies of its independence.
DNEVNE: Is it more realistic to reconstruct the existing or some technical government that would prepare for the early parliamentary elections?
KORAC: With people like this in power in Montenegro, anything is possible. Nothing serious can be predicted. Because where the only common interest is to keep power, any political acrobatics is possible. Still, I believe more in the relatively soon elections than the reconstruction. But don't forget, apart from the judicial release of the leader, DF and partners are desperately wanting a census under their own conditions. Maybe that's why they are beating their horns and holding the Government for another half a year.
DNEVNE: Most of the departments in that reconstructed government should belong to the DF. If that is indeed the case, will the international community react and how? What are the consequences for Montenegro, but also for the parties that are in power, and affirm themselves as civic, pro-European…?
KORAC: Mandic and Knezevic are the Montenegrin version of Vojislav Seselj. Glorifying the Chetniks (both Mandic and Seselj are “dukes”), relying on Russia, anti-Western attitude, extreme aggressive nationalism and threats to political opponents. The bigger problem than that is that these are anti-systemic parties which, although they go to the polls, do not actually have their place in a parliamentary democracy. They are the deniers of everything that is the concept of civil society, from the denial of human rights to the understanding of politics as organized violence. They can be part of the parliamentary majority only if they use some mimicry to present themselves as changed for a while, but their change is essentially impossible. And that pseudo change for the sake of coming to power is very transparent. That is why the stories about their entry into the Government are an empty delusion.
DNEVNE: Do you think that is impossible, after all?
KORAC: With their entry, first your “civil parties” would disappear, and then Montenegro itself in the long run. The parties financed by Serbia and Russia are certainly not interested in the development of Montenegro, but rather see it as a land aircraft carrier for Russian interests in the Mediterranean. But considering that URA and the Democrats have long been without any political concept of further development of Montenegro, this can theoretically happen. But not for long. It is sad to see that these two parties are politically active in the previous work of the DPS, when they exclusively attack. They are not even able to conceptually design the further development of society and economy in Montenegro. It is also logical because apart from mentioning corruption, they did not offer anything new in their election campaigns. Especially not Democrats. Their election campaign was devoid of any political content.
DAILY: And now DF seems acceptable to them…
KORAĆ: They are the best example that in Montenegro there is a conflict of only two basic political conceptions – pro-European and anti-European, and that the policy of the “middle way” that some voters liked has no future.
The government in which the DF was would be a complete political negation of everything that Montenegro has done in the last twenty years. It is not so much a question of what the West would say, but what the citizens of Montenegro would say. This government has a parliamentary majority of only one MP, although it often forgets that. This does not provide any possibility for such drastic political changes in the running of the state. It would be incomparably better to call new elections than to test the patience of at least half of the citizens of Montenegro.
DNEVNE: The EC Report on Montenegro should be expected soon. There are already indications that, for the first time since the start of negotiations, it could be very negative. What do you think?
KORAĆ: One can expect a negative, although probably mitigated Report in some diplomatic area. This government has failed in all areas because it has exclusively dealt with coalition competition and the employment of its activists and members of their families. She herself does not know what exactly she did positively. Break up an old airline? Took a loan under unknown conditions? She wanted to appoint people who opposed the independence of Montenegro as ambassadors?
When you read the Prime Minister's speech of Mr. Krivokapić in the Parliament, there are no real program goals and deadlines in it. And how would it be? That government was formed exclusively for the removal of the DPS and its coalition partners and nothing else. In style – let's get through this, and then we'll see what we do.
DNEVNE: Years have passed, they still don't know what to do…
KORAC: He won't even know. The real prime minister, Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović, passed away and since then the government has been led by his church member in the position of prime minister, who never dreamed he would be in that position. Instead of just kneeling in churches and monasteries and licking spoons at communion, he miraculously found himself in a position to lead the country. Your Montenegrin Uroš Nejaki (historical Uroš Stefan V) reminded me a little of the false emperor Šćepan Mali, with the fact that the latter was much more capable than Prime Minister Krivokapić.
I will connect the role model Vučić, who, according to demagoguery, has no equal in Europe
DNEVNE: The Minister of Finance in Krivokapić's Government promised golden hills and valleys from next year, never mentioning a higher number of unemployed, never less investments, never less allocations for started projects… Is that the price of “success”? What will be the consequences?
KORAC: Instead of presenting his specific economic program, your minister suddenly became a first-rate demagogue. Which shows that even studying at prestigious foreign universities often doesn’t change people. It’s easy to promise, it’s hard to keep promises. Maybe his role model is Aleksandar Vučić, who, according to demagoguery, currently has no equal in Europe. But whoever is his role model does a bad thing. I would like his ministry to show clearly after a year of government what has been done and what remains to be done.
Instead, some foreign investors were driven out, new ones were not attracted. The real economic priorities are not stated, the promise of an increase in salaries and social benefits is not a serious economic program unless it is specifically stated how this will be achieved.
The shame of enthronement under arms is shared equally by the Government and the Serbian Orthodox Church
DNEVNE: A month has passed since the enthronement of Metropolitan Joanikije, which has brought Montenegro almost to the brink of civil war. The people of Cetinje say that they will never forget that, that the police and security services of Montenegro openly stood up for the protection of the Serbian Orthodox Church and other countries, and that “evil seeds” were sown that day and a source of new instabilities and incidents. What do you think about this whole event and its consequences?
KORAĆ: Those were dramatic events that you went through with sheer luck without human casualties. The church, with the help of the police, forcibly enthroned the new metropolitan. Those images of the patriarch and the new metropolitan being taken out of the helicopter with automatic weapons by the police will forever remain a disgrace to both the church and this current government. They share the shame equally. I never thought I would see a enthronement with tear gas and shock bombs. And that is why this event is only formally religious, it was bare political violence. It was necessary to show the power of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro. Because it escalates. In the past, Metropolitan Radović used a military helicopter to carry a tin church to the top of Rumija.
The current successor does not avoid weapons against dissatisfied citizens of Cetinje. And it threatens to demolish the Mausoleum on Lovćen. Whoever does not see that, deceives himself. Even after more than forty years, the Serbian Orthodox Church did not recognize the Macedonian Orthodox Church. Although even she no longer claims that Macedonians are not an independent nation. And he completely denies the existence of the Montenegrin nation. That is why I am afraid that in the combination of such a government and the intransigence of the Serbian Orthodox Church, new temptations will follow in Montenegro.
Once the church is directly involved in politics, it rarely gives up. And Prime Minister Krivokapic is forming the first clerical party in the history of Montenegro. It is a paradox, for generations you have had a secular and a spiritual leader united in one person, but you did not have a clerical party. You will get it in the 21st century!