The fascist cocktail served to us by the ruling majority through the erasure of Montenegro, its values and culture, disrespect for its Constitution and laws, and police brutality, requires a determined and clear resistance from the entire society. If until now this ideology of the Montenegrin rulers was not clear, yesterday’s events in Villa Gorica and in front of it completely exposed the goals and attitudes of the current state policy. From awarding the highest state award to a denier of that same state for a literary work that does not exist, to police brutality against those who oppose it, the current government has once again shown the true nature of its strategies.
The awarding of the 13th of July award to Bećir Vuković is a direct attempt to make that recognition meaningless, which is in line with regular attempts to completely disintegrate the anti-fascist heritage of Montenegro. The very decision to reward an author whose image and work are completely in disagreement with the values of Montenegro and the award, an author who in his statements celebrates the Chetnik movement, and denies and seriously insults the existence of the Montenegrin nation, contributes to this.
This choice is another in a series of dramas created by the President of the Assembly Andrije Mandić and his colleagues, in order for their nationalist propaganda to overwhelm the public discourse and take it over completely, while the justified rebellion against attempts to degrade culture and society, and promote the celebration of lawlessness, was presented in the now traditional manner, as “anti-Serb hysteria”. In this case, Vuković served as a puppet of the right-wing part of the government and Vučić’s proxies in it, which Andrija Mandić set up to once again show in which direction they are leading Montenegro. Additionally, the entire event justifiably creates the image that there is only one constituent of the government – the former Democratic Front led by Mandic.
In addition to the continuous violence against the Montenegrin cultural being, in front of Villa Gorica yesterday we also witnessed the violence that the police carried out against the gathered people who expressed their disagreement with it. Thus, the role of the police as a repressive apparatus of the ruling class, which opposed the same brutality until it was transferred to their service, was once again confirmed. These authoritarian, anti-democratic methods are unacceptable, but also expected when taking into account the complete absence of democratic culture, the will to respect the laws of Montenegro, and the ideological orientation of the ruling majority. Therefore, the entire public that cares about Montenegro and the people who make it up must unitedly demand responsibility – first of all, the resignation of the persons responsible for the safety of the citizens of Montenegro.
Furthermore, we must not be content with constant appeals directed at the President of the Assembly Mandić, and at Prime Minister Spajić, who is his hostage, to stop the illegal, anti-state and anti-democratic act – this will obviously not happen, either due to a lack of capacity or the will to act differently. We are of the opinion, as activists, but also citizens, that after many years of normalization of neo-fascist activity, and numerous protests by citizens, it is time to demand the harshest political sanction against the endlessly hungry elites – the confiscation of so many valued armchairs, by all democratic means.Citizens have the right to disobey when those whom we elected ignore the national and international legal system and values woven into the very existence of Montenegro.
