Winds of change in Montenegro: What to expect in the next period?

The recent elections in Montenegro suggest that major changes could soon take place in the country in the Western Balkans. Montenegro has opened all chapters in the process of negotiations with the EU, but how far has the enlargement process really progressed and what can be expected in the coming period when it comes to the EU accession process, but also with the political climate in the country? – These are just some of the questions that President of Managing Board at Institute Alternative, Stevo Muk, commented in the podcast “European Talks” for the European Policy Centre.

In this podcast you may find answers/comments on the following:

• ‘Bridging the divisions among Montenegro’ was one of the phrases that was very often mentioned in the last couple of weeks. What kind of divisions are these leaders referring to and how dangerous these divisions were?
• Women’s (non) participation in talks and negotiations between three political parties which will form the new Government?
• What will be the main challenges for the new Government?
• What will be the behaviour of the DPS in foreseeable future?

Listen the podcast here:

Sanctification of Municipality building in Budva can violate the constitutional principle of separation between religious communities and state, and put in an unequal position users of public services and employees in administrative bodies.

Local self-government, regardless of the political parties that win the majority in local elections, should serve all citizens, regardless of their personal characteristics and beliefs.

We remind that the Law on Prohibition of Discrimination recognises as discrimination not only unequal treatment, but also giving priority to a certain group. Also, in addition to the de facto unequal position, this Law recognises the possibility of a certain practice, even seemingly neutral, brings certain persons and groups in unequal position.

Yesterday’s act put the personal beliefs of one political group in the foreground, at the moment of the election of President of the Municipality. We remind that this function, although conditioned by election results, is professional according to the Law on Local Self Government.

By election on this, very important, position, President of Municipality is especially obliged to enable consistent observance of the law and the Constitution, and to send a message to citizens that they are equal in exercising their rights in local authorities. This also applies to employees in local self-government, who cannot be placed in a privileged or unequal position, especially not because of political, national, racial, sexual or religious affiliation or on the basis of other personal characteristics.

We express the hope that these and similar practices will not be repeated and that a clear line will be drawn between one’s political actions and personal beliefs and the need to perform the most important functions in public administration in a lawful, professional and impartial manner.

IA Team

So far, four people have been prosecuted for incidents in Pljevlja – two for two crimes committed to the detriment of three individuals and two people for a total of three misdemeanors.

The Human Rights Action (HRA) and Institute Alternative (IA) requested information from the Police Administration on how many misdemeanor and criminal charges were filed by the competent institutions and citizens in the period from 31 August to 9 September in the context of disruption of public peace and order and incitement to national, racial and religious hatred (Article 370 of Montenegrin Criminal Code), endangering the safety of citizens (Article 168 of CC) or other criminal offences that may have occurred in the context of increased tensions following the announcement of the election results in Pljevlja and other places in Montenegro.

The Police Administration replied that from August 31 to September 9, a total of two criminal charges were filed against two individuals for two criminal offences to the detriment of three individuals, namely for the criminal offence of inciting national, racial and religious hatred and the criminal offence of grievous bodily harm.  In addition, two misdemeanor charges were filed against two individuals for three offences, namely “gross insult and especially insolent behaviour” as well as “physical assault or physical confrontation” with “gross insult and especially insolent behaviour”.

Also, regarding the statement of the former Chief Imam of the Islamic Community in Pljevlja, Mr. Samir Kadribasic, that he was worried the attack on the premises of the Islamic Community was qualified only as a misdemeanor, we asked the Basic State Prosecutor’s Office (ODT) in Pljevlja how the attack was qualified. ODT in Pljevlja said the attack on the premises of the Islamic Community – by breaking the glass on the front door and inserting the message “A black bird has flown, Pljevlja will become Srebrenica” was qualified as a criminal offence of inciting national, racial and religious hatred.

In that case, as far as is known, there are still no suspects, i.e. no criminal charges have been filed against anyone.

The HRA and the IA assess that the totality of criminal charges for post-election incidents is what remains as official data on the proportions of these incidents. Although there is information about intimidation of citizens and writing other messages of hatred in Pljevlja, the fact is that all these incidents and their perpetrators were not reported to the police, and that the police did not immediately react to the incidents by filing criminal charges against specific persons.

We hope that incitement to hatred will not be repeated in Montenegro in any way, especially not by belittling war crimes and their victims. We encourage citizens to report such incidents and their perpetrators, so that there is a basis for them to be punished and thus to prevent similar behaviour. We appeal to the Police to discover the perpetrator(s) of the attack on the premises of the Islamic Community and to identify the perpetrators of other incidents that were reported to it.

President of the Managing Board at the Institute Alternative (IA), Stevo Muk, was a guest in the podcast “Diplomacy Talks“. He talked with Mahir Sajmija from Foreign Policy Initiative BH. This podcast aims to discuss current topics from the region.

The topic of this episode was the recent elections in Montenegro and the new majority. In the podcast, they also discussed about the policies and platforms on which the change of the government in our country took place.

Listen podcast here:

We published Call for proposals for the implementation of the Small Grant Facility for support to civil society monitoring of public administration reform at local level.

Due to current epidemiological measures, info session for all interested applicants will be held via Zoom platform on Thursday, 24th September at 11h.

Access data for info session:

LINK: https://zoom.us/j/99680854152?pwd=OHl0WWIzVzJXMWhpZ1hRZW5lYUFjZz09
Meeting ID: 996 8085 4152
Passcode: 621454

For all additional information and help with joining the meeting, please contact us at dragana@institut-alternativa.org.