The air-sea landing on Tivat experienced a famous failure, but the expulsion of 87 members of the elite Čaci-unit of commando-batinistas confirmed that the President of Serbia is not giving up his attempts to destabilize Montenegro, whose independence he has never come to terms with.
The trophy poster "Serbia wins" was not displayed on the piers of Porto Montenegro, which Vučić intended to show that he is so powerful in the region that he can send his legions without asking the authorities of other sovereign states. Or to fascinate EU leaders and tell them that he is the one who holds the baton in Serbia, not the student movement.
The catastrophic episode in which the president caused great damage to the image of Serbia has been archived for now, but "Zoro the avenger" with an address on Belgrade's Andrićev venc does not give up the confrontation. Montenegro is an exerciser of his imagined omnipotence and ambition to get Serbia out to the sea.
OUTFLOWS OF LOVE AND LIES
Vučić recently issued a cynical "apology" to the citizens of Montenegro on the occasion of two decades of independence, which Serbian nationalists still call "secession": "You didn't bother us, we saw you as sisters and brothers and wanted to live in the same country as you. I admit, we are guilty, and I'm sorry that we loved you more than you loved us."
One of the latest in a series of mutual "outpourings of love" is the offensive to "wash away the blackest stain from the face of Montenegro" - the recognition of Kosovo's independence in 2008 - and to send a message that "the people of Montenegro" have not renounced "neither father, nor God, nor Montenegro".
When the government of Milo Đukanović made the decision to recognize Kosovo, it was estimated that it was in Podgorica's interest, that it represented a rapprochement with the West and accelerated the process of European integration. The decision rests on the interests of Montenegro, but Belgrade still believes that it was an act of betrayal, and the Serbian government does not accept the fact that Montenegro creates and conducts state policy in accordance with its interests.
Although the Ohrid Agreement committed itself not to launch a campaign to recognize Kosovo, Serbia engaged its praetorians in Montenegro to annul the decision to recognize independence.
The campaign is led by the president of the pro-Serbian Democratic People's Party (DNP), Milan Knežević. Demands that Montenegro cancel the decision. As it is about sabotaging Montenegrin state politics, this "institutional fight for honor" naturally enjoys the support of the top authorities in Belgrade.
While during the progressive rule, Kosovo received an anthem, a flag, documents, plates and Gazivode, the police and the judiciary, and now education and healthcare in the north, while the dinar was abolished, Vučić is directing his Montenegrin allies to shout: "Kosovo is Serbia!". "Tuzi and Ulcinj are Montenegro!".
The point is not for Serbs from Montenegro to help him save Kosovo - which he doesn't have, but he doesn't know how to announce it and stay in power - but to bring divisions in the neighborhood, to destabilize the country which, to his horror, is the leader in the region and is on its way to becoming the 28th member of the EU by 2028.
Vučić called the decision from Đukanović's time a "stabbing in the back" of Serbia and since then he has more or less openly worked to undermine the authorities in Podgorica, including the current one that ousted the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) after the 2020 elections.
MUNICIPALITIES OF ZETA, PLJEVLJA AND KOSOVO
Behind all the empty talk of reconciliation lies the imposition of identity fragmentation and intentions of subjugation. The post-radical government in Belgrade, with the help of the Serbian Orthodox Church, incites battles over the status of the Serbian minority in Montenegro, which it uses as pawns in the fight against Podgorica's sovereignists.
It started on May 12 in the Assembly of the Municipality of Zeta, when all 19 councilors present adopted the DNP's initiative to cancel the decision on the recognition of Kosovo on the territory of that municipality. They are so worried about Kosovo that they have not been able to build a market for years, even though passengers with Kosovo documents still pass through the Golubovci airport located on the territory of the municipality, and vehicles with Kosovo registrations move through Zeta without any problems.
Then it was the turn of the municipality of Pljevlja. Mandić and the local NSD leader expressed their reservations with the argument that they first want to see the "scope and concrete results" of the decision made in Zeta, stressing that it did not produce any practical effects and could only damage relations between municipalities. After three days, Mandic changed his mind. The open pressure of Vučić's comrades-in-arms and his media, the messages he must have received through secret channels, and the mood of the Montenegrin Serbs took their toll. All ten NSD councilors from Pljevlja accepted Knežević's initiative. Their municipality will not recognize an independent Kosovo.
Knežević's declaration by itself has no legal weight. The Constitution of Montenegro clearly defines the competences of municipalities and local authorities, and among them there is no foreign policy, international recognition of states, nor the possibility to challenge or "recognize" state decisions.
The leader of the DNP has another plan: that after Zeta and Pljevlja, other municipalities adopt the initiative, and then the Assembly, so that the Government would eventually commit to withdraw "the most shameful decision in the history of Montenegro". Zeta, then Pljevlja... Knežević loyally cements the pedestal next to Vučić and illusionistically believes that the shining examples of the two Montenegrin municipalities will eventually reach the Oval Room of the White House and that "Trump the Serb" will also sign the document on the recognition of Kosovo. Let them, let them continue to live in the myths of Lazarus' covenant, waiting for heavenly justice.
RADICAL "RETURN OF WRITTEN OFF"
Just as he divided his country to an unimaginably large scale, Vučić behaves in the same way towards his neighbors. He continues to recruit enemies on all sides. He claims that he is being threatened with death.
Vučić's attitude towards Montenegro best exposes the matrix of his policy in the region, which rests on the radical roots of the 1990s, the time when Vojislav Šešelj best elaborated the postulates of Greater Serbian nationalism in practice.
With a paternalistic attitude towards the Montenegrins, the people who are historically, religiously, culturally or linguistically the closest to the Serbs in the Western Balkans, Vučić has been undermining sovereignty for years because he sees the Montenegrins as a "younger brother" who is there to listen.
The Novi Sad Center for Social Stability, the propaganda machine of Vučić's government, produced a "documentary" on the occasion of the referendum on the independence of Montenegro on May 21, 2006. The title says it all: "Referendum - a story of imaginary freedom". The thesis is that Montenegrins are "a fictitious and artificial nation that stabbed its older brother in the back." Cain killed Abel. It was as if Vučić wrote the script, who immediately after the referendum, as a radical oppositionist, said:
"We will work to achieve a new state in 10 or 20 years through a referendum, because our goal is to live together and not separately!" Two decades have passed and he recently lamented: "We experienced you as sisters and brothers and wanted to live in the same country as you."
Vučić seems to have come up with a threat at the end of the Novi Sad center's performance: "We're coming back for ours!". The "return of the written off" in the Serbian nobleman's version requires that his Tihi and Prle, Knežević and As he divided his country to an unimaginably large scale, Vučić behaves in the same way towards his neighbors. He continues to recruit enemies on all sides. He claims that he is being threatened with death.
HOW DUKE MANDIĆ BECAME SUSPICIOUS
photo: Marko Kranjc / Cabinet of the President of MontenegroA GIG FOR LEADERS: Montenegro's historical success
Andrija Mandić assures his mentor in Belgrade that he can influence the politics of Podgorica. In doing so, any disobedience is not allowed.
Although he hosted the Chetnik Duke Mandić so many times in Belgrade, the latter resented him. Montenegro recently solemnly celebrated two decades of restoration of its statehood when, in a referendum, a majority of 55,5 percent of citizens declared against remaining in the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro, the last relic of Yugoslavia.
Mandić, as the President of the National Assembly, appeared at the reception organized by President Jakov Milatović on that occasion. He was seen near Đukanović, who is as much a secret idol to Vučić as he is a hated leader with charisma that the president of Serbia has never had, nor will he ever have.
Mandić does not forgive that. What was he supposed to do? Should he boycott or throw a Molotov cocktail at the "anti-Serb festival"? Knežević, nicknamed "Pipun" (melon), did not appear, so he received all the praise for his "moral firmness and steadfastness" in the fight against the legate "Britva", as they call Milo.
In Belgrade, it was the occasion for malicious remarks that it was a celebration of the order that for years worked against the identity, language, church and historical memory of the Serbs in Montenegro. Arsenal of famous arguments.
"The Montenegrin nation did not arise naturally - it is an artificial project. It was not built through a historical process in which a community becomes self-aware, culturally shaped and politically articulated over the centuries, but is the result of state and ideological engineering", writes "Informer", which exclusively talks about "Ustasha Montenegro". "In the Balkans, the Serbs remain the only people whose human rights are threatened."
Mandić additionally suspects that, together with Prime Minister Milojko Spajić, "under the guise of European reforms, he is preparing the institutional return to political life" of Đukanović's DPS, which is another conspiracy against Serbia. The fact that the DPS voted for amendments to the Law on the Status of the Descendants of the Petrović Njegoš Dynasty, which mentions the Serbian "violent annexation" of Montenegro in 1918, may definitely remove Mandić from the list of Vučić's favourites.
Just as he divided his country to an unimaginably dangerous scale, Vučić behaves in the same way towards his neighbors. He continues to recruit enemies on all sides. He claims that he is being threatened with death.
Mutual relations are complicated by criminal groups and their confrontations. It is claimed that Đukanović was involved in shady smuggling deals, but none of them involved drugs. Vučić is brought into direct connection with the Škaljara and Kavača drug cartels. Why and how did he target Radoj Zviter, the leader of the latter group?
DECISION OF THE PARTY ORGANIZATION IN PJESIVCI
After the de-recognition campaign, Vučić could encourage the request for the withdrawal of Montenegro from NATO, all in accordance with the postulates of his "de-recognition of Montenegro" policy.
When the Soviets entered Czechoslovakia in 1968, a meeting of the party organization was held in Pješivci. Minutes of only two points were adopted. The first read: "For the Soviet Union to withdraw from Czechoslovakia immediately", and the second: "If the Soviet troops do not withdraw, schedule a new meeting".
They will have to schedule a new meeting in Zeta and Pljevlja. "Everything is in vain when a man loses his mind", writes Balša Brković in "Vijesti".
Despite all efforts, almost 60 percent of Montenegrins "of all faiths and nations" cannot figure out Vučić. "Montenegrins don't like it when you make fun of them, when you belittle and deny their history and country," journalist Tamara Nikčević told Vreme. "Especially not to curse and insult their women. Even the worst Chetniks, I have seen, are outraged by the fact that in the film (of the Novi Sad Center) women from Cetinje are called Italian whores."
The political maturity of a leader is often measured by the relationship he has with the surrounding nations. Never interrupt an enemy when he is making mistakes, is a saying attributed to Napoleon.
