The pro-Russian Democratic Front (DF) in Montenegro warned the deputy prime minister of this country, Nik Gjeloshaj, that he could be expelled from the Government, after he opposed the initiatives for the inclusion of dual citizenship and Serbian as an official language.
“We kindly advise Gjelošaj to accept the social reality in Montenegro and not try to deny us the rights that everyone else has… because if he bites too much, he can break his teeth” , it is stated in the communiqué of the DF, which is part of the government coalition.
Deputy Prime Minister Gjeloshaj, also Minister of Economic Development, was in Washington, where he signed the Memorandum for Strategic Economic Cooperation between Montenegro and the USA.
In a meeting with the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Balkans, Alexander Kasanof, he warned against the “potentially destabilizing activities of the clerical-nationalist structures, which aim to undermine the European perspective of Montenegro”.
Clarifying this statement in an interview given to the Voice of America, Gjeloshaj said that the DF’s initiatives to change the Law on Montenegrin citizenship and to approve the Law on foreign agents – according to the model of the Russian law – are aimed at slowing down the road European Union of Montenegro.
Among the countries of the Western Balkans, Montenegro is a leader in the EU membership process. Speaking about the red lines about the further participation of his party in the Government, Gjeloshaj said that they would be decisions that do not comply with EU and US policies.
He did not exclude the possibility of a reconstruction of the Government of Montenegro or a new agreement.
The government of Montenegro was reconstituted in July, when it was joined by the DF and the Bosnian Party. The pro-Russian parties got two deputy prime ministers and three ministerial positions, while the Bosniaks got one deputy prime minister and five ministerial positions.
This was the first reconstruction of the Government of Millojko Spajqi, which was formed at the end of October 2023. In October of that year, the parties in power signed an agreement, with which they pledged to respect “the Euro-Atlantic course of Mali of Montenegro” and “will develop friendly cooperation with all the countries known to Montenegro”.
The agreement was also signed by the DF parties, one of whose leaders, Andrija Mandiq, was elected Speaker of the Assembly of Montenegro.
DF parties want the lifting of sanctions against Russia, undertaken because of its aggression in Ukraine, do not recognize Kosovo’s independence, are against Montenegro’s membership in NATO, and deny the genocide in Srebrenica.
Although the DF said it would uphold foreign policy goals and respect good neighborly relations, in practice it was otherwise.
Montenegro received four protest notes from neighboring countries, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the mandate of the new parliamentary majority.
The cause was the statements and initiatives of the DF leaders, some of which – such as the resolution on the genocide in Jasenovac – were also accepted by other parties in power.
Also, two days after the DF entered the Government, Croatia declared its leaders undesirable.
The pro-Russian and pro-Serbian parties in the Government of Montenegro are for the signing of the agreement on dual citizenship with Serbia and other countries, as well as for the amendment of the Law on citizenship.
Explaining this initiative, the leader of the DF, Mandiq, said that the diaspora from among the minority peoples also wants this. Gjeloshaj reacted, calling on Mandiq not to mention Albanians in the context of the narrative about dual citizenship.
He estimated that this is a “chauvinist project” and that the Albanian population will not participate in the creation of the “Serbian world”, nor “other imaginary and similar worlds on a national basis”.
In the interview given to Voice of America, Gjeloshaj said that Albanians are citizens of Montenegro, which they perceive as their country, and that changing the Law on citizenship “would lead to a great division in Montenegro”.
“Not only in me, but also in the party, in the people who belong to it, there would be a strong reaction if the Law on citizenship, which has only one goal, is to change the national structure of Mali Black,” he said.
The warning about the possibility of dual citizenship caused harsh criticism even from the opposition, according to which such a thing would enable interference from neighboring countries, which would lead to the loss of sovereign decision-making in Montenegro.
After the publication of the results of the population census in Montenegro, which showed that Serbian is the mother tongue for 43 percent of the population and Montenegrin for 34 percent, pro-Serbian parties started a campaign to change the Constitution.
They want Serbian, which now has the status of a language in official use like the Albanian, Croatian and Bosnian languages, to receive the status of an official language like the Montenegrin language. Gjeloshaj said that the Constitution will not be changed to make the Serbian language official.
He also criticized the campaign before the population census, at the end of last year, which suggested citizens how to register.
“To me it’s humiliating to tell someone how to declare themselves. Montenegro is a democratic country, it has the right to think, to feel…”, said Gjeloshaj for the Voice of America.
Before the registration, pro-Serbian and pro-Russian forces and media called on citizens in Montenegro to declare themselves as Serbs, who speak Serbian and who belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church. Reacting to Gjeloshaj, the DF said that it should reduce threats and “expressed chauvinism towards the Serbian people in Montenegro”.
“He did not put us in the Government and he cannot take us out, especially due to the fact that there is no MP from his party in the Parliament, but he has two ministers, thanking the Serbian MPs as well”, said the DF and added that Gjeloshaj himself can be taken out.
The DF has 13 deputies in the Assembly of Montenegro, while the Albanian Alternative of Gjeloshaj, as part of the coalition of the Albanian Forum, has two. Apart from DF MPs, the parliamentary majority consists of the Europe Now Movement, the Democrats, the Socialist People’s Party, the Bosnian and Albanian parties. /REL