Photo: Igor ŠljivančaninFive years have passed since the election on August 30, 2020, when the first change of government in modern Montenegro took place after three decades. For many, it was a historical moment that opened up the space for the change of government, but the interlocutors of "Vremen" estimate that the expected fundamental changes have not yet come.
Five years ago, on August 30, 2020, citizens Montenegro sharpened by the will to replace the government that until then seemed eternal, they went to the polls and did exactly what they wanted.
vlast Milo Đukanović i Democratic Party of Socialists she leftThree decades in opposition, and some new faces sat down in the key seats.
"For many in Montenegro, August 30, 2020 was a symbol of hope that the country can become a functional democracy in which we not only have the power to change, but also a government that answers to the citizens for their decisions every day, takes care of their needs, the public interest," Daliborka Uljarević, executive director of the Montenegrin Center for Civic Education, told Vreme.
However, as he assesses, the expected consolidation of the system did not occur.
"We actually got replacements, not changes in the sense that many bad practices that DPS had during its rule continued to live. DPS lived them in a marathon, and now the new government is doing them in a sprint," Uljarević believes.
Zlatko Vujović, a professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Podgorica, believes that the DPS anomalies remain, but the actors are new.
He says that five years is a sufficient period to evaluate the rule of a political group or coalition.
"What is different compared to the time of the DPS is that today we do not have one center of power, as that party used to be. But all the anomalies that made voters dissatisfied - corruption, party employment, abuse of state resources - have not disappeared. Only the actors have changed. I would even say that these practices are more intense and extensive today," says Vujović.
"Citizens more mature than those who lead them"
Daliborka Uljarević estimates that the last five years have been one of the most turbulent periods in the political history of Montenegro.
"The fall of the DPS destroyed the myth of the inviolability of the government and opened space for replaceability - this is a great democratic pledge. However, instead of real changes, we got replacements. Many bad practices continued to live, some even in an even more aggressive form. It seems as if the current actors know they don't have much time, so they try to take as much as possible for themselves and their parties," says Uljarević.
According to her, there was not even sufficient emancipation of society in Montenegro before, and that the great burden on the entire institutional system was the party's captivity of the state.
"Everything was somehow subordinated to one party," says Uljarević.
She adds that in the meantime, citizens have shown greater political maturity than political elites.
"They are more mobile, more critical, freer in relation to parties. But at the same time, research shows that more and more people believe that Montenegro is moving in the wrong direction. At the beginning of this year, 45 percent of citizens assessed that the country is going the wrong way, and less than 36 assessed that it is going the right way. This is a significantly worse balance than in 2020."
There are no immutable
The previous period also showed that voters do not feel loyalty to one party to a large extent, so they are ready not to support those they voted for in the next elections, and with whom they were not satisfied in the meantime, Vujović believes.
Uljarević believes that the new government in 2020 came with a wave of promises to end all the bad practices that DPS had, starting with the way of managing the state, "treating the state as one bottomless pit in terms of using public resources, abusing public resources for party and private purposes and so on".
"We witness all this even today, only there are more actors and even today, according to my deep conviction, corruption is more expensive in Montenegro than it was during the period of DPS rule", says Uljarević.
As he adds, he does not underestimate the importance of change, and that it was not even realistic to expect that everything would suddenly be fine now.
"But I think it was realistic to expect that in five years we will still clean up in such a way that we have a more responsible, better, more functional government. Unfortunately, we did not get there," explains Uljarević.
She also believes that there were too many expectations from the new government, and that these expectations were met with their heads.
"Today, the citizens are certainly stricter towards them than they were towards the DPS before their fall. And that, of course, is one dimension that does not negate the fact that they see that things are not good, that they are not set on an adequate track and that something needs to change. I believe that this will be shown through the election cycles because many citizens have been punished both locally and nationally," says Uljarević.
Nevertheless, identity issues still come to light, and the impression is that people are more concerned with that than with life issues.
"Today, we are much more concerned with the monument to Pavlo Đurišić than with economic topics. Society is more focused on what polarizes it than on what unites it and what should lead it forward," says Uljarević.
Media and pressure from Belgrade
The interlocutors of "Vremen" also underline the great influence of Serbia and President Aleksandar Vučić on events in Montenegro.
Zlatko Vujović warns that Montenegro looks more and more like Serbia under Aleksandar Vučić.
"We have a strong influx of capital and media influence from Belgrade. We almost no longer have local criminal structures - they have become part of networks connected to the authorities in Serbia. This is a dangerous transformation, because it means that the key levers of power are no longer even in Montenegro."
He adds that the media scene in this former Yugoslav state was no worse.
"At the time of the DPS, the strongest media were oppositional. Today, virtually no television with a national frequency has a critical attitude towards the government. In addition, Belgrade, through Vučić's investments and takeover of the state service, has a huge influence," Vujović points out.
As he adds, no criticism of the Vučić regime can be heard in the media in Montenegro and nothing good about the protests in Serbia.
Uljarević also emphasizes that the pressures from Serbia represent a serious obstacle to democratization: "The authorities in Belgrade are trying to have their share of the power cake in Montenegro, which further slows down the processes of democratization and Europeanization."
The European Union as the only corrective
In the last few years, Montenegro has rapidly begun to pave the way to the European Union and is often mentioned as the next member of the European family.
"Vremen" interlocutors agree that European integration remains the key hope.
"If there was no European integration, Montenegro would go down dramatically. But that is not the result of the work of our government, but of the EU's geostrategic interests," Vujović believes.
Uljarević warns that the government does not use this capital: "I often have the feeling that the European Union will bring us into membership, if necessary, on a stretcher. But the government spends this loan reluctantly. The process is increasingly thorny, including the tightening of relations with neighboring Croatia, which further complicates the path."
"Hope and Disappointment"
Five years after the historic elections, Montenegro finds itself between hope and disappointment.
For citizens, August 30, 2020 remains a symbol of the possibility of change, but also a reminder that the mere change of government does not mean a fundamental improvement of the system.
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