April 15, 2019 - Several hundred citizens gathered on Sunday, 14 April in the Arms Square in Kotor at a protest gathering "Who is handing over Kotor?. The protest is against the shift of Mayor Vladimir Jokic (Democrats). They called on the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to give up its initiative for his resignation until the creation of conditions for fair and free elections.
With harsh disapproval and whistles on each mention of the party and its members, demonstrators have called on the SDP to fulfill its obligations in the ruling coalition with the Democrats, the DF, the URA, and the SNP. Protestors called SDP constituents to cease to sabotage the work of the majority in the local parliament, which Ranko Krivokapić's party has been doing for months now.
Otherwise, as heard at the meeting, the citizens of Kotor and the rest of the local governmental councilors believe that the SDP opened a coalition with the opposition DPS, SD, and HGI in that city and thus overlapped the electoral will of citizens from the last local elections in 2016. Acting this way, SDP also fails its signature on the recently-concluded Future Agreement with the rest of the opposition and organizers of civil protests #ODUPRISE.
SDP had formally launched the Jokić dismissal initiative ten days ago, accusing him of being autocratic, failing to meet strategic development plans and causing damage to Kotor. Their effort was supported by the DPS, SD and HGI delegates, and a session of the Assembly that is scheduled for their request, which will address the issue of trust to the Mayor, is scheduled for 24 April.
Mayor of Kotor, Vladimir Jokic and the president of Democrats, Aleksa Becic, Photo by Sinisa Lukovic
An informal group of citizens organized Sunday's protest against the intentions of SDP, DPS, SD, and HGI to rid Jokić, and support was provided by numerous activists of the movement "97,000 - Odupri Se".
The leader of Democrats, Aleksa Becic and the party functionaries Boris Bogdanovic and Danilo Saranovic, President od Crnogorska Vladimir Pavićević, mayor of Herceg Novi Stevan Katić (Democrats), Deputy Prime Minister of Kotor, Mišo Samardžić (PzP), President of Kotor Parliament and President DSS Dragica Perovic and numerous civic and NGO activists attended the protest. There were also members of the SNP headed by the former delegation of that party at the Montenegrin Assembly Snežana Jonica.
Among the citizens of the Arms Square were some of the members and functionaries of the Kotor SDP: Mladen Lučić, the current director of the Utility Company, the president of the Women's Forum SDP Kotor Jelena Milić, vice-president of the Women's Forum SDP Kotor Danijela Vidović.
Speaking to the gathering, Perovic said that the session of the local parliament on April 24 will not be the Assembly for which they voted and who expressed the will of the citizens from October 2016, for which the attendees invited them to the square to declare whether they are for or against the shifts Mayor of Jokic.
"I find that the proposal for the dissolution of the President of the Municipality of Kotor has been strongly rejected," Perovic said following the crowds presenting support for Jokić and the rejection of the SDP initiative.
The president of the Assembly of Kotor, Dragica Perovic, Photo by Sinisa Lukovic
"All of your efforts to end the election of thefts, intimidation, pressures, and political corruption, have resulted in the withdrawal from the Montenegrin regime in Kotor. Who is trying to bring that cremated ghost back to the political scene? Who wants to go to Kotor? Is our memory so short that we have forgotten everything they did - all the damage, all the lawlessness, the devastation of our environment and our lives, and which individuals are trying to rehabilitate in the last half of the year?"Perovic said, pointing out that "the time of the carnival has passed, so the political masks in Kotor should drop."
"The obsession that has been following us for the last thirty years is a great burden for each of us, especially for our children, our youth that is happy, prosperous, and humane," said Milica Ilic, one of the organizers of the civil protest.
"I sincerely believe in the love and dedication of Vladimir Jokic to Kotor. That's why I'm here today. I want to save the forces, the will, and the character of Kotor, a bastion of freedom, for our children and us," she said.
Dr. Goran Jovanovic (Timur Tmurni), Deputy of Democrats in the Assembly of Kotor, poet, satirist, and musician reminded that citizens of Kotor recently burned this year's carnival Tranjo Djudice Montanaro, who alluded to the leader of SDP Ranko Krivokapić.
"In this kind of Montenegro, politics is reduced to infinite obstructions, raids, blackmails, attempts to take you back to the barracks; to be with them in the same mud. They are constantly knocking on their chests, calling for everlasting consistency, repeated phrases that differ from promises and acts, and support the survival of collective amnesia and collective madness," Jovanovic said, and added that "the biggest devastator of Kotor's mafia and thug regime Don Milo Corleone Djukanovic, his satellites and partners in holding a thief bag."
"Some still keep the sack, and some have kept it for a while, so maybe again," said Jovanovic, adding that "Kotor is undone and wounded, abandoned by many worthy and disappointed, but still has the power to resist and will resist."
Source: Sinisa Lukovic/ Boka News
