The Montenegrin “model” shows that autocratic authorities can be replaced peacefully, which could have repercussions on neighbouring countries, where the authorities have spent years and even decades securing support in both the west and the east by encouraging interethnic animosities and claiming that only they (rulers) can keep the peace, while purportedly protecting the interests of great powers
I believe that the elections in Montenegro are just the start of a process that will bring significant changes to the Western Balkans. After three decades, there is a realistic chance that the government of the smallest country in the region will change in a democratic way, and that this will be the beginning of the end of kleptocratic systems in this region. It is important that the opposition in Montenegro realised a parliamentary majority by promising to fight systemic crime and corruption, and that these changes are not coloured by nationality and religion. The Montenegrin “model” shows that autocratic authorities can be replaced peacefully, which could have repercussions on neighbouring countries, where the authorities have spent years and even decades securing support in both the West and the East by encouraging interethnic animosities and claiming that only they (rulers) can keep the peace, while purportedly protecting the interests of great powers. The Western Balkans is an area of hopelessness and competition among miserable economies, adorned with Potemkin deceptive statistics in quarrelling countries that hover between economic ruin, social delinquency and political bankruptcy. This region is a paradigm of corruption, the money laundering industry and criminalised systems, the “export” of the best doctors, engineers, experts and craftsmen, who flee this place like escaping a nuthouse.
A change of government in Montenegro would be a chance for the recovery of that country and a signpost for the other countries where coming to power is just an opportunity to get rich, and staying in power boils down to the skill of media manipulation, election theft and the pressure of security systems and sales of national potential.
The Washington agreement represents an indicator that the most difficult of all Balkan issues can be resolved primarily through the economy
On the other hand, the agreement from Washington, contested as a wish list or evaluated as a “paper for Trump’s election campaign”, essentially represents an indicator that the most difficult of all Balkan issues can be resolved primarily through the economy. I want to believe that there has been an abandoning of the crazy idea of a “partition of Kosovo”, which would lead the whole region into new chaos, and that the solution does not lie in the drawing of new borders.
This is a century in which borders are being erased, with the complete freedom of movement of people, goods and capital being achieved. They failed to solve the Kosovo problem for two decades through strong international military and civilian missions, because they allowed local leaders to remain in power, fuelling intolerance between Serbs and Albanians, and because they tolerated regional criminals that are suited by a state of chaos and hopelessness. When the influence of extremists and criminals on the government is eliminated, political problems become much less important. When international control of police cooperation in the region is established, results in the fight against regional criminals can be expected, and that is the key to peace in the Western Balkans.
