(23/06/06) Sovereignty Bows Out as Election Issue (Balkan Insight)

• 2006-06-27
• Europa in de wereld

Sovereignty Bows Out as Election Issue

Montenegrofaces the first election in years in which statehood is not a major theme of the campaign.

By Petar Komnenic in Montenegro (Balkan Insight, 23 June 06)

Parliamentary elections, which in the past have been dominated by the issue of independence, will this year focus on bread-and-butter issues.

While all the big parties are likely to take part in the ballot, scheduled for the autumn, no one knows whether the opposition or ruling parties will campaign individually, or continue as part of wider coalitions.

The opposition bloc, which stood for the preservation of the state union with Serbia, has united the strongest opposition party, the Socialist People's Party, SNP, with the People's Party, NS, the Serbian People's Party, SNS, and the Democratic Serbian Party, DSS, while the ruling Montenegrin coalition has comprised the Democratic Socialist Party, DPS, and the far smaller Social Democratic Party, SDP.

A non-government organisation, the Group for Changes, which has announced its transformation into a political party, will also take part in an election for the first time.

Sovereignty has dominated all the elections in Montenegro since 1997, when Milo Djukanovic, now the prime minister, broke away from an earlier alliance with Slobodan Milosevic's regime in Serbia.

Under Djukanovic, Montenegro turned its back on Belgrade and adopted Montenegrin sovereignty as its main election platform.

Ordinary economic problems virtually disappeared from the election agenda, especially after March 14, 2002, when the European Union pressured Montenegro into signing the Belgrade Agreement, setting up the state union.

As the agreement allowed a referendum on independence to take place after three years, the issue of statehood never went away, with the opposition continuing to campaign on the advantages of close ties with Serbia and the ruling pro-independence parties vigorously highlighting the potential benefits of going it alone.

In the meantime, the tiny republic's economic problems received short shrift.

Although the government has maintained relative macroeconomic stability, keeping inflation down to 1.8 per cent a year since the introduction of the euro as the currency, living standards remain dire.

According to Monstat, the republic's statistics bureau, monthly wages average only 230 euro, around the same as in Serbia. While unemployment is high, at about 17 per cent, under Montenegrin Employment Office figures. The opposition believes the real jobless rate is far higher than the government admits.

Budimir Dubak, deputy head of the NS, told Balkan Insight that while the opposition still contests the referendum results, the party will have other priorities in this autumn's election.

Dubak said the NS would campaign on people's real-life problems and on the economy. The country needed a democratic government "whose task would be to improve living standards", he said.

"They got their state," he said of the separatists, "and now they must fulfil their referendum pledge to focus on performance."

Dubak said the NS would try to keep the pro-union bloc, which attracted around 185,000 votes on May 21, in one piece.

"The priority for the campaign would [also] be to get rid of

Djukanovic's regime and establish the rule of law," he added.

The biggest opposition party, the SNP, is striking a similar pragmatic note, saying that EU integration and economic and social questions will be their priorities.

The SNP leader, Predrag Bulatovic, recently said the party would

"insist on building institutions, as well as on the practical implementation of EU standards".

A senior SNP official, Velizar Kaludjerovic, added that the focus would also be on toppling the Djukanovic government "as the prerequisite for a crackdown on organised crime and rebuilding

devastated institutions whose priority should be Montenegrin citizens - their political, economic, social security rights and tolerable living standards".

The SNS said its priority would be to continue the fight for the rights of Serbian people in Montenegro who make up 30 per cent of the republic's population of around 650,000.

An SNS official, Novica Stanic, said although they viewed the referendum result as illegitimate, the real state of affairs had to be taken into account.

"We did not want independence but now there is nothing else to do but to fight for the rights of the Serbian people in Montenegro - cultural autonomy, proportional representation in state organs and dual [Serbian and Montenegrin] citizenship," said Stanic.

The DSS said it, too, wanted to concentrate on the economy, though it feared the ruling coalition would try to coast to election victory on the basis of their referendum win.

"They will resort to their referendum victory as a trump card, as they have nothing else to show," said Simonida Kordic, a DSS official.

However, the ruling coalition denies it will pursue this strategy, saying it has no intention of seeking a fresh mandate on that basis.

Dragan Kujovic, vice-president of the DPS, told Balkan Insight the party would launch a new programme for the republic's economic and social recovery.

"A convincing majority of Montenegrin citizens has made its decision on the independence issue," he said. "It would make no sense to discuss Montenegrin statehood once again."

Koca Pavlovic, of the Group for Changes, said their organisation was the only political entity so far to declare that it will take part in the autumn election on its own.

The Group for Changes had always insisted on the importance of real-life problems of ordinary citizens, he said, and had avoided the heated debate on independence.

"We will highlight the need to improve living standards, the fight against organised crime and corruption and the revision of suspicious privatisation deals," he said. "To rehash this story about the Montenegrin statehood would be futile."

Many ordinary Montenegrin citizens also feel it is the time to move on.

"We have had enough of stories about borders, emotions and fraternal peoples," said a student, Bozo Radulovic. "Too little time has been devoted to solving crucial issues, such as salaries, pensions and student conditions."

Novak Bulatovic, 50, from Berane, in northern Montenegro, agreed.

"I am not interested anymore in talk about the referendum and independence, as this story has reached its closing chapter," he said.

"Now it is time to see what we should live off and how to live in our new 'house'. There is no more time to lose."

Petar Komnenic works for the Podgorica independent weekly Monitor. Balkan Insight is BIRN`s online publication.

This article was published with the support of the British embassy in Belgrade, as part of BIRN's Minority Media Training and Reporting Project.