February 2, 2019 - Before the fourth civil protest, 97,000 Odupri Se (Resist), scheduled for today at 6 pm in the Independence Square, representatives of the organising committee met yesterday with the Head of the EU Delegation to Montenegro, Aivo Orav.
The organisers requested a meeting with the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, who was in Podgorica on the occasion of a ministerial meeting of South Eastern European energy ministers. Hahn explained that he did not have time to meet with the protesters, but addressed them to the Head of EU Delegation in our country, Aivo Orav. The meeting was held yesterday, 1 March, in the afternoon on the premises of the EU Delegation in Montenegro.
"The head of the EU Delegation could not point us to 'solving problems in the institutions of the system' because we told him that, using protest as a legal and legitimate democratic right, we were on Street precisely because the institutions did not function. We have made it clear that this is primarily the responsibility of the authorities. Authorities have captured institutions and the state itself," said Budislav Minic, one of the representatives of the organising committee of the 97,000 Odupri Se protests.
"We told Mr Aivo Orav that we do not want to destabilise or destroy the state, but also that we reject the 'status quo' which, under the pretext of stability, refers to captured institutions. We also emphasised that we want a state of social justice based on the rule of law - a state free of partitocracy in conjunction with criminal circles, and according to the citizen as the bearer of the original sovereignty, which is guaranteed by the first two articles of the Constitution of Montenegro. We emphasised that we want to achieve our goals peacefully, without the tears of a Montenegrin child. We expect the EU to be our partner, who will follow peaceful civil protests and help us ensure that the authorities and their adjacent structures do not violate them," Minic said.
"There is no uncertainty among the interlocutors – it is clear we do not expect the EU to do the job of the citizens or that the citizens do the job of the EU," said the organisers of the protest Odupri Se.
