WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
Choose language:
AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
We are transmitting the full speech of DPS President Danijel Živković at the jubilee 10th Congress:
Dear participants of the Congress,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear Honorary President, Mr. Đukanović,
I warmly greet you, and I take this opportunity to thank you for attending the jubilee, tenth, Congress of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro in such large numbers, which we are organizing under the slogan: Dignified, Reliable, Strong!
I am pleased that many of our friends are with us today - I would say traditional partners, both those from Montenegro with whom we have been charting state policy together for decades and writing some of the brightest pages of Montenegrin history, and those from the region and Europe with whom we share common values and program directions. Your presence today is a reflection of respect for the Democratic Party of Socialists, and for that, on behalf of the party leadership, I thank you most sincerely.
Dear friends,
In the period between the two Congresses, much has changed in Montenegro. From a country that until August 2020 was an example of political stability and economic prosperity, a reliable neighbor and a respected member of NATO, uncompromisingly and clearly directed towards the European Union as its natural home, we have become an unstable country, institutionally and economically destroyed, and security threatened both externally and internally. At odds with our closest neighbors, a country whose ruling majority, without a vision and clear strategic direction, subordinates the fate of the state and its citizens to its political interests, armchairs and the smallest privileges.
Three governments have also changed.
The first, expert, formed on a wave of manipulation of religious feelings, ended its mandate in just a year, remaining in that short time as a reminder of incompetence, unprofessionalism and complete amateurism.
The second, minority, lost trust in a little over 100 days because it subordinated the European path for which it received support from the Democratic Party of Socialists to the interests of certain regional addresses.
The current government is also the third, which, with a nationalist platform and populist policy, is corroding not only the economic and financial substance of society, but also the values that are the foundation of modern Montenegro – civic character, anti-fascism and multiethnic democracy.
However, something has not changed in these four dismal years. What has not changed, a constant for decades, is that the Democratic Party of Socialists, despite the shameless coups, revanchist feasts, shameful attacks on our members, has remained the strongest party on the political scene all these years, which, although it has been operating in opposition for the fifth year, continues to be the pillar of defense of those values on which today's Montenegro is based.
We have uncompromisingly defended and will defend the constitutional and historical right to decide the fate of the state exclusively in Montenegro. Montenegrin sovereignty has survived through the centuries in a permanent struggle to defend state dignity, despite continuous attempts that continue today to finally subjugate Montenegro through various nationalist strategies, which included strong logistics, big money and the engagement of a powerful propaganda machine.
Unfortunately, today's executors of that plan are domestic actors, embodied in the so-called "thirty-eight majority", who since 2020 have been almost competing to see who will cause more damage to the state, subjugate its institutions, destroy the security system and destroy its civil and multi-ethnic harmony, with the ultimate goal of making the statehood and sovereignty of Montenegro just a dead letter on paper, which in the end should open the logical question of the survival of such a state's independence.
However, they did not succeed. And it will not, as long as the Democratic Party of Socialists and other state-responsible entities and numerous citizens are strong and organized to oppose such a scenario. In the past four years, acting as an opposition in every place – in Parliament, on the street, in our local communities, we have actively resisted attempts to destroy and demolish what we have built and created, based on the valuable heritage of previous generations. Therefore, today, with full moral capital, we can say that Montenegro would have already succumbed if it were not for the strong and organized resistance of the Democratic Party of Socialists. We have all provided that resistance together – at all levels of our organization. The fanaticism, persistence and faith in the idea of an army of several tens of thousands of voters, members, sympathizers and activists who stand steadfastly on the defense of state interests remain an unsolvable enigma not only for our political competition, but also for all those who want to break Montenegro.
This type of work, aimed at uncompromising protection of key state goals, remains our common priority in the party's work at all levels and in the next four years.
Dear friends,
Democratic Party The socialist party, in the three decades that we were the backbone of the state government, achieved great – we can even say historic – achievements that marked new phases of emancipation and development of Montenegro.
We avoided the war devastation of the nineties, protected the country from bombing, introduced a stable currency into our payment system despite great pressure and opposition from our international partners. We worked wisely, patiently and persistently on the realization of the restoration of the statehood of Montenegro. When they set us seemingly unattainable goals, giving us a high threshold of as much as 55 percent of the votes needed for independence in the referendum – we did not back down, but we accepted that challenge, believing in ourselves and certain that the time had come to realize the dream of many generations – knowing that a sovereign and independent Montenegro is a condition for our further development.
After gaining independence, we strategically mapped out the foreign policy path of the country towards Euro-Atlantic integration. Montenegro has become a candidate for EU membership with all negotiation chapters open and three temporarily closed, as well as a member of NATO, the most powerful military alliance in the history of mankind.
We have changed the economic perspective of citizens by bringing in some of the most significant investors and starting the largest infrastructure projects in the history of the country. Eleven billion foreign direct investments, an electric and energy submarine cable with Italy and the first section of the highway are just some of the projects that have significantly transformed the development potential of Montenegro. During all this time, we have been an example of stability in the Western Balkans region, a good and decent neighbor, a reliable member of the NATO alliance. And most importantly – always and everywhere, we have taken care of the state dignity and reputation of our country.
We were not, of course, sinless, and unlike our political competition, we very consciously and publicly speak about the shortcomings and shortcomings of our policy both during the time of government and today. In these few years that we have been in opposition, we have had the opportunity to analyze what we have done and to explain why we lost the majority support of citizens at one point.
However, when we look at the effects of all post-August governments from this perspective, after almost five years of political changes, and with what “unbearable ease” they destroy everything they can reach, guided by the primary goal of staying in their seats as long as possible, then it seems to us that our mistakes were not as big as they try to present themselves.
We have used the last four years to return to the old practice of the Democratic Party of Socialists, which includes significantly greater field engagement, reaching every voter, listening to the problems of citizens, and uncompromisingly representing the interests of those who have given us their trust.
The series of local elections last year showed that we are on the right track and that support for our policies is growing, and we ended last year with a rating of almost 29 percent. The elections in Nikšić, the territorially largest municipality in Montenegro, which are scheduled for April, I am convinced will show that support for our program and vision significantly exceeds 30 percent. Continuing further growth, until we regain the trust we had during the period of power, is the absolute priority of the new leadership.
However, the Democratic Party of Socialists also needed this opposition status, because it motivated us to be better, to work harder, not to get carried away by power, as it used to happen, but to seriously engage in reforms in the party. Not to be vain and not to respond to criticism with arrogance, but to change what is wrong, and find a way to make our political offer, which is better than the competition in everything, more attractive to citizens. The goal of our reform was not to meet someone's expectations, to simulate changes or to satisfy the wishes of critics who mostly came from the ranks of our opponents. No - we changed and introduced some new standards because the most important goal of the reform was to strengthen voter support, modernize and increase the efficiency of the party's activities at all levels. I think we succeeded in that, as evidenced by the results of local elections and public opinion polls.
I would like to remind you that we have set high standards in terms of the election of the party leadership, by introducing direct voting of the membership, which was preceded by a strict update of the data in our membership base. We will see which party on the domestic political scene will have the courage and audacity to follow our example. So far – none. And the innovations that we have foreseen in the new Statute, such as the new organization of the secretariat and greater responsibility starting from the party president and through all other levels in the organization, are aimed at better and more efficient work of the party, with the ultimate goal that when we take power, we will be in the best possible political condition in every sense to achieve our vision: a stable, serious state that will provide a sustainable, European standard of living for its citizens.
That vision in more detail we have described in the proposed Program that we will discuss during the working part of the Congress.
We have seriously addressed the economy, new investments, tax policy and the valorization of Montenegrin potentials - from agricultural and energy, to those in the field of tourism. Aware of the fact that during the period of power we have not found an adequate balance between capital investments on the one hand and social policy on the other, with the proposed Program we have defined that the citizen, or rather the everyday standard of living, is our key priority in the next four years.
We have envisaged special measures to remedy the consequences of the populist economic programs that are in force and whose consequences - from growing poverty to increasingly pronounced social inequality and the unsustainability of the pension system, are beginning to be felt.
We have also addressed the issue of security and the rule of law. The chaos in the security sector, which in the tragic events at the beginning of this year directly led to the loss of human lives, threatens to get out of control. Citizens do not feel safe today and urgent remediation of the situation in this sector, with serious investments and modernization at all levels, will be one of our priorities. Just like revising the existing positive legal solutions in the field of justice that have led us to a situation where selective justice has become an everyday occurrence, and the prosecution is an instrument in the hands of the parliamentary majority whose representatives openly announce the persecution and arrest of opposition representatives.
We have not forgotten the health sector, which has suffered great damage from the abolition of contributions, which today results in ever longer waiting lists, a lack of basic funds for the work of doctors and inadequate health care for citizens at the level of the entire country.
A special place in our Program is also occupied by policies in the field of education and youth, with the definition of measures to improve their status in society, which must result in the prevention of emigration and the creation of an environment in which their potential can be fully expressed in order to improve the demographic picture of Montenegro.
We have also defined a Program in the field of culture and environmental protection with the ambition of becoming a regional center in the field of innovation and information technologies.
All this is only part of what we have written in the Program for the next four years. However, for its implementation, we will need daily work, in all parts of the country, in order to shorten the period of Montenegro's decline and return to the positions of managing state policy.
This process has clearly begun, first with the return to power in Ulcinj, and then with the recent disempowerment of this parliamentary majority in Budva. The next stop awaits us in April - at the elections scheduled in Nikšić, and then we continue on until the next extraordinary or regular parliamentary elections that will be a turning point in the further development of Montenegro.
Dear friends,
Unfortunately, the curse that says: "May you live in interesting times" has come true for our political generation.
We are direct witnesses of a rearrangement on the global political scene and the creation of something that can be called a new world order. Right-wing movements are gaining strength in many countries, populism and nationalism dominate, we have an active war on the territory of Europe with a reopened focus in the Middle East.
The values and principles on which Western democracy and the geopolitical order have been based since World War II are changing. Western democracies, due to the malignant interference of third parties, are facing numerous challenges, and strategic approaches in the traditional Euro-Atlantic partnership are also changing, as we were able to witness recently at the Munich Security Conference. The repercussions of such upheavals are also felt in the Balkans, and we felt them especially in Montenegro. The willingness of certain Western figures to tolerate undemocratic regimes for the sake of an allegedly higher goal has inflamed great-state nationalism and seriously threatened the stability of the region. Interference in the internal affairs of neighboring countries, the destruction of sovereignty and active involvement in electoral processes through electoral engineering and the unauthorized influence of third parties have undermined the already fragile functional democracy in the Western Balkans. The superficiality in the analysis of political processes, which led to statements such as the one that behind every nationalism lies corruption, has brought back to the region the spirit of the nineties. Such an approach then resulted in a bloody war, ethnic cleansing, genocide and hundreds of thousands of victims and displaced persons.
This puts an even more demanding challenge before the Democratic Party of Socialists – that despite all the global turbulence, instability, highlighting differences as something undesirable, and insistence on national cohesion, ethnic homogeneity, we preserve our harmonious multiethnicity and multiculturalism as the most precious thing we have, as the supporting pillar of our statehood. We must resist the theses that multiethnic democracies are not possible in the Balkans and fight every day for the citizens a society in which multi-confessionalism and multiculturalism are an advantage, not a handicap for development. This is also the key goal and mission of the Democratic Party of Socialists.
Finally, I would like to address another important segment.
There are few political parties that have the moral capital that we have today, thanks to the achievements and results achieved by previous generations in our party, leading state policy in the most turbulent times.
Thank you for the legacy you have left us, as well as for the fact that you still help us every day with your wisdom, advice and experience. Your contribution to our current results is enormous and, more than anything, it shows the strength and unity of the family called the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro.
We owe you special gratitude, Mr. Đukanović. Not only for the historical achievements and achievements that our party has achieved under your leadership, but also for the fact that in 2016 you opened space for a new political generation that has since matured and taken over the leadership of the party. Your goodwill and, we can safely say, paternal approach, which you have had towards us from the first day, as well as the invaluable help that you continue to provide us today through your experiences and advice, especially oblige us to be worthy of the trust that you have shown us.
Relying on the wisdom of previous generations,
Believing in ourselves and our own potential,
With fanatical perseverance and uncompromising struggle of our members, supporters and activists – we continue on!
With dignity!
Reliable!
Strong!
To new victories of the Democratic Party of Socialists, and to new successes of our state house!
MAY MONTENEGRO BE ETERNAL!
