The draft law on banning fascist, neo-fascist and military nationalist organizations and the use of their symbols was never even considered in the Parliament, although it was proposed several times, and it is necessary for Montenegro

ULIĆEVIĆ: – It is very clear why the deputies refused to discuss that law and vote for it – because a good number of them support fascist positions, some openly and some silently, but also because many are not ready to prohibit the activities of pro-fascist actors who are their strong financiers

GORJANC-PRELEVIĆ: – The anti-fascist tradition is stronger here, the country is diverse, multinational, there is an awareness that its survival depends on the respect of all the peoples who live in it, than in Serbia, which is predominantly mono-national and unfortunately forces Serbian nationalism, which in the 1990s caused a lot of harm to everyone around it

Former member of the Parliament of Montenegro Andrija Popović (Liberal Party) several times submitted a proposal for a law on banning fascist, neo-fascist and military nationalist organizations and the use of their symbols. He submitted the bill in 2020, but it was rejected several times. In December 2021, only 29 MPs supported the proposal of the Liberal Party. At the session of the Legislative Committee in November 2021, he received only one vote. It was not even discussed in 2022.

Why did the members of the Montenegrin parliament refuse to discuss this bill, and what consequences does it have for today’s social picture in the country, where deep divisions and revisionism do not subside over the years, but become more and more relevant, the director of the Action for Human Rights, Tea Gorjanc-Prelević, and the executive director of the Spectra Association, Jovan Ulićević, who is one of the authors of the scientific-research work, Narrative Analysis, comment for Pobjeda. of (neo)fascism and anti-fascism in Montenegro: from the elections to the 2020-2023 elections”.

After increasingly frequent messages from politicians and dignitaries of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro that the members of the Chetnik movement were heroes, and the denial of their cooperation with the occupiers and fascists, condemning views are voiced by civil activists, the media, and non-governmental organizations, while politicians and the state leadership are mostly silent or send negative messages that society should not be divided. Competent authorities that should prosecute those who spread hate speech or discrimination prohibited by the Criminal Code, glorify or deny war crimes, are currently “monitoring” the events and rarely initiate cases. No one takes the ombudsman’s reactions seriously because his opinion is still not binding, until a new law is adopted that would enable him to act more concretely.

Tea Gorjanc-Prelević said that the law on banning fascist, neo-fascist and military nationalist organizations and the use of their symbols was not discussed, because “obviously there was no will for it”.

– Although it is true that the draft law should have been refined in a legal sense, it could have been done in the meantime. Where there is a will, there is a way – she believes.

Ulićević thinks that even in 2020, the bill pushed by Andrija Popović from the Liberal Party, like many others, came rather late.

– Why the deputies refused to discuss that law and vote for it is very clear – because a good number of them support fascist positions, some openly and some silently, but also because not many are ready to prohibit the activities of pro-fascist actors who are their strong financiers – he says. He points out that we do need that law, but also that it is in a dilemma and that we have it in order to be implemented, taking into account the solid legal framework for the respect of human rights that we have, which, as he said, only decorates the paper as a dead letter and something that we are dawning on Europe – said Ulićević.

Gorjanc-Prelević believes that in Montenegro there will be no equalization of the roles of Chetniks and partisans, as happened in Serbia when the Law on Amendments and Supplements on the Rights of Veterans, Military Disabled Persons and Members of Their Families, as it was officially called, was adopted in 2004. It was then adopted as a political concession to Vuk Drašković’s Serbian Restoration Movement, a party that was then part of the ruling coalition.

– I don’t think that will happen in Montenegro, the anti-fascist tradition is stronger here, the country is diverse, multinational, there is an awareness that its survival depends on the respect of all the peoples who live in it, than in Serbia, which is predominantly mono-national and unfortunately pushes Serbian nationalism, which in the 1990s caused a lot of harm to everyone around it – she said.

When asked whether, if that law had been adopted, the situation in society today would be different, Gorjanc-Prelević replied that the Quisling and collaborator symbols would undoubtedly be prohibited, and that it would be additionally and more clearly emphasized that the promotion of the Chetnik movement is prohibited and punishable.

– The promotion of that movement in Montenegro would still have to be recognized as hate speech against the Muslim population because that movement had a program of ethnic cleansing which it implemented in practice – points out Gorjanc-Prelević.

She reminds that the representative of all that on the Montenegrin field is the infamous Pavle Đurišić.

– Glorifying him as a “hero”, singing songs in his honor and the like, everything should be hate speech, but unfortunately the state prosecutor’s office still does not turn to it – she points out.

Ulićević also thinks that the judicial authorities are not reacting in the way prescribed by the law, who says that “I am afraid that we still do not have concrete benefits in terms of social justice and real living conditions, which should be guaranteed by our legislative framework”.

– The political space for winning votes through hatred is not only left by the absence of that law, but by very weak institutions, relativization and normalization through the hyperproduction of neo-fascist narratives, historical revisionism, and the increasing legitimization of absolute freedom of speech without responsibility, which is advocated by right-wingers because they flourish in that space – he points out.

He believes that in such a space the boundaries between freedom of speech and hate speech are lost, as well as speech that reinforces fascist narratives, which does not legally belong to hate speech.

And Gorjanc-Prelević points out that “if Montenegro wants to maintain its anti-fascist foundation, as we could hear recently from all the highest officials during the celebration of the Day of Victory over Nazism and Fascism, then it needs such a law”.

– Perhaps it is more needed here than in Slovenia, which recently adopted it – she said.

When asked whether the absence and non-adoption of that law actually left a political space that serves to win votes, based on the deep historical divisions that we have in our society, Gorjanc-Prelević replied that, unfortunately, a wider space was left for exploiting those divisions.

When asked what should be done, given the situation in which politicians turn their heads, citizens react on social networks, and nationalists are allowed freedom of expression and speech, despite the fact that they violate the laws and the Constitution while prosecutors mostly “monitor” the situation, Ulićević answers that concretely, it is necessary to delegitimize as interlocutors those who promote hatred, nationalist narratives, narratives that create fertile ground for human rights violations.

– To deny them media and public space, to act proactively in the area of ​​education in which the fight for democratic and secular education will be waged, and to sanction hate speech, but also to expand its interpretation, because we have very educated right-wing actors who have been taught how to avoid hate speech, and to complete their work – a job that thrives on inciting hatred. This type of propaganda activity must be decisively put to an end, and that cannot be done only by non-governmental organizations – says Ulićević.

The question arises, he points out, what the institutions will do if they want to preserve social peace and the democratic order, which is threatened and violated, but still exists to some extent.

Marković to ensure the prosecution’s reaction to the glorification of the Chetnik movement

Tea Gorjanc-Prelević said that a group of NGOs on Tuesday addressed the Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković with a request to ensure that he reacts to the increasingly frequent examples of the glorification of the Chetnik movement and its leaders in Montenegro, in which they left a particularly bloody mark.

– The State Prosecutor’s Office could make the necessary difference. We have seen that their previous effort to prosecute Marko Kovačević for his statements on Grahovo was undermined in the Assembly by refusing to put the request to lift his immunity on the agenda at all. But that is also prohibited, punishable, and again it is up to the state prosecutor’s office to use its powers to ensure the rule of law, as well as its authority – said Gorjanc-Prelević.

Source: Pobjeda