Slaps in the faces of EU and NATO
?eljko Ivanovi?, Vijesti, June 22, 2020
https://www.vijesti.me/kolumne/444567/samari-za-eu-i-nato
Just as president ?ukanovi? was sitting to a working lunch with EU ambassadors, swearing that ‘the rule of law will be the key priority of the state policy’, his private director of the Official Gazette was dismissing the municipal government of Budva. Meanwhile, the newfangled coalition partner from the ‘Montenegrin’ party V.B. issued the order for new seals, while the pretorian guard of ?ukanovi?‘s private prosecutor interrogated the speaker of the municipal assembly Krsto Radovi? at the police headquarters.
And just as some ambassadors were giving their friend and partner ?ukanovi? ‘useful suggestions on the rule of law’, the private team of Milo’s indomitable investigators arrested director of Budva’s municipal utility enterprise mere two days after the local DPS filed a criminal complaint against him – for impeding the traffic! Meanwhile, it’s been more than a year since D.K. revealed that he paid Ivan Brajovi? 16 times the market value for a plot of land, a corruptive deal of the decade, and we're still awaiting the official start of the process. A textbook example of selective justice, as the UK ambassador Kemp would say, but she wasn't at the lunch with ambassadors because the UK is no longer part of EU. What a pity.
And just as the president of Montenegro tried to explain to the EU ambassadors that 17 is more than 16, a fundamental democratic principle everywhere in the EU, his long-term coalition partner Ranko Krivokapi? stood in the Parliament trying to prove the opposite – that 17 is not more than 16 when 16 is the result of political corruption. ?ukanovi? is a miracle. His political father, Momir Bulatovi?, told us that long ago in his memoirs, with an apt illustration: nobody else has such a talent for looking you straight in the eye while lying.
And so just as president ?ukanovi? reassured ambassadors of EU member states that there will be no compromise with the nationalists and those who want to destroy this generation's achievements, the Freedom House published a new report on the state of freedom in the world that struck right at our greatest achievement: ‘Corruption and nepotism are still widespread, and the government’s modest efforts to tackle the problem, partly driven by the demands of the EU accession process, yielded little result’. The same documents says that it is believed that ‘many members of the ruling party are connected to organized crime, which further strengthens’ the DPS’s grip on power’. I would not be surprised if some Orbán’s ambassador wave this paragraph away telling Mr. ?ukanovi? that Freedom House has no business writing reports about us, or the EU. And that the EU representatives, as well as the SecGen of NATO Stoltenberg, will keep inviting him for lunch because he is the legitimate and democratically elected president of the country. Even though they all know that the Boss' words are cheap and that he is always ready to look straight into their eyes and lie to them. Like he lied to Momir.
And just as ?ukanovi?, at the same work lunch, presented to the ambassadors ‘the progress in the implementation of structural reforms and the strengthening of investment competitiveness’, the Reuters and the Times of Malta published a research article on one of our strategic investors – controversial Maltese businessman Yorgen Fenech – who is suspected for being behind the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Fenech is the owner of the off-shore company 17 Black, which was involved in the windmill project on Mo?ura. Malta's foreign affairs minister Evarist Bartolo announced that all officials involved in corruption, money laundering, and tax evasion will be held accountable! The Maltese officials, not ours. Ours would have to be prosecuted by Katni?, and there isn’t the slimmest chance of that happening.
All that he is now telling the EU ambassadors at home ?ukanovi? already told Brussels to its face, at another similar lunch, and to Stoltenberg too. Just as the former spokesperson of Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, sat in Washington finishing an opinion piece in which he said that Montenegro seeks to be a respected member of the Euro-Atlantic community, but that unfortunately the kleptocracy of Montenegro’s leadership calls into question its suitability as a NATO ally and fitness to join the European Union! Montenegro under ?ukanovi? is violating the very preamble of the NATO agreement, which calls on its members to ‘safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law’, Ereli writes, but Stoltenberg won’t hear of it. He’s practically saying – we won’t have some former spokespersons and some Freedom Houses tell us what is going on in Montenegro.
And just as the Montenegrin president told EU diplomats that ‘the ruling coalition has always been ready for dialogue with the opposition over the conditions of elections, but it is not willing to allow irresponsible behaviour and endanger the functioning of the state’, his party octopus was completing the operation in Budva in which the opposition took over the municipal government while the former government, lulled by the idea of dialogue, was debating with the DPS soldiers ‘a peaceful and political resolution of the conflict’.
Just as ?ukanovi? was telling the EU ambassadors about how the ‘regional governments are leading the decisive battle for our EU perspective’, president of the Supreme Court held the annual press conference, with all the courts’ presidents in attendance. Decked out in her Rolex watch, allegedly purchased in Prague in the far 1997. On discount. Certainly for less than 5 thousand euro. If only she would tell us the serial number that would confirm the story, we all could, like she said, feel proud of everything the courts have done in the preceding years under her leadership. This could be taken as black humor, if it wasn’t for Stankovi? and Katni?, but compared to the prosecution, it’s easy to see why Medenica thinks her judiciary is the best in the world and in Montenegro.
So, as ?ukanovi? lifted his eyebrow, a little disapprovingly, like only he can do, and reproached the ambassadors for their countries’ failure to open Chapter 8 with Montenegro after nearly a year of waiting, the Prime Minister of Malta Robert Abela spoke up and promised a full investigation of our strategic partner in Mo?ura. The former Prime Minister of Malta and a friend of Milo’s, Joseph Muscat, felt called out, and told the media he supported the investigation because he had nothing to hide. The Special State Prosecutor Katni? has his hands full with parking violations in Budva and has no time to respond, so ?ukanovi? too has nothing to worry about. Or hide. Because he is our renowned citizen, just like Brajovi?, as Katni? would say.
And so just as I write this text, I see a notification from CNN, a comment by Fareed Zakaria, who after reading John Bolton’s new book thinks ‘Trump will pay any price, make any deal, bend any law to assure his own survival and success’. I’m afraid at least one of the EU ambassadors at that work lunch must have gotten the same impression of our president’s character. To quote the famous British diplomat David Owen, after his experience with the feuding Balkan chieftans whom he tried to hold back from war back in the 1990s: ‘They look you in the eye and they lie. And you know it, and they know you know it. But you have to go on’.
It’s the perfect moment to finish this text, with the timely wish that is, I hope, shared by the EU ambassadors and the SecGen Stoltenberg: may Milo still lead us for many years on the path of EU and NATO partnership and integration. May eternal be Montenegro!