Revealing Zagreb Postcard of Jakov Milatović

The visit of the new Montenegrin president Jakov Milatović to Croatia was a substantively important revelation. Excluding the customary platitudes about friendly relations and commitment to the European path, Milatović sent two important messages from Zagreb. First, by stating that he ‘advocates for a broad government’, and that he does not believe that ‘those who have made Montenegro an unlawful state can help it return to the path of the rule of law’, he announced his support for the formation of a pro-Serbian Montenegrin government, which includes parties with openly Greater Serbian programs, while excluding Đukanović’s DPS.

Milatović’s political movement PES (Movement Europe Now) won a relative majority in the Montenegrin parliamentary elections, but to form a government, he needs partners: either openly Greater Serbian parties or Đukanović’s DPS. In Zagreb, he clearly announced how he sees Montenegro’s ‘European path‘ and ‘return to the rule of law‘. ‘Return to the rule of law’ in Montenegro translates to criminal prosecutions for corruption to eliminate Milo Đukanović and prominent members of the DPS from political life, under whose leadership Montenegro (again) achieved state independence (2006) and became a NATO member (2017) through the disassociation from Serbia. And then, under the aegis of the European path and the fight against corruption, gradually empty Montenegro of Montenegrin statehood and return it to the ‘Serbian world’.

Strange Position

In Montenegro, a true ‘rule of law’ would indeed have work to do. Even in the criminal prosecution of members of Đukanović’s political-interest circle. Because Montenegro truly achieved its statehood with the help of smuggling and corruption, which Western partners, primarily the USA, have tacitly tolerated for years. But which rule of law would Milatović ‘return’? The one from Milošević’s era, when Montenegro was the ‘second eye in the (Serbian) head’? Not to delve further into the history of ‘rule of law’ in Montenegro, from 1918 onwards. And even before. From the position of pro-Serbian parties that President Milatović would like to see in a broad coalition government, rooting out corruption implies above all – rooting out Montenegrin statehood, at the expense of the Serbian and Russian world. Therefore, it is not surprising that for such a ‘broad coalition government’, Milatović received public understanding from his host at Pantovčak, Croatian President Zoran Milanović, who has fired shots at Brussels for interfering in the formation of the government in Montenegro, calling it, for reasons known only to him – woke and cancel politics. Thus, he has, of course, gained new admirers in Serbian and pro-Russian media.

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The second important message from the new Montenegrin president is that he does not recognize the conclusions of the Badinter Commission on the disassociation of the SFRY from 1991, which were the legal basis for the international recognition of all successor states of the SFRY, including Croatia and Montenegro, but aligns himself with the (Greater) Serbian thesis on the illegal secession of new states from the SFRY. Namely, when asked about the fate of the Croatian school ship ‘Jadran’, which was sent for repairs to Montenegro in 1991 and was never returned, but was seized and appropriated by Montenegro (then a Serbian ally), Milatović replied: ‘The factual situation indicates that it is owned by Montenegro; I think our position is clear.’ A strange position for someone who advocates for the ‘return to the rule of law’. Namely, the school ship ‘Jadran’ was built in 1933 and had been registered in Croatian ship registers until 1991. According to fundamental principles and succession agreements, Croatian ownership of the ship is indisputable and unquestionable. Except for members of the (Greater) Serbian political school, which, by disputing former republican ownership, continues to seek to challenge the legality of the disassociation process of the SFRY.

‘Jadran’ is a Political Test

The ship ‘Jadran’ in this case is therefore not just a ship but is and will be above all a political test for the future Montenegrin government – does it adhere to the principles on which the modern Montenegrin state was founded? Or does it become a Russian-Serbian Trojan horse in NATO with the ambition to become one in the EU as well? Indeed, Đukanović’s government did not return ‘Jadran’ either. Paradoxically, but today its return to Croatia is politically more important for Montenegro (as a legitimization of statehood and the rule of law) than for Croatia. The new, allegedly pro-European Montenegrin president Milatović is not inclined to this. And he has also received support from Croatian President Milanović, who declared ‘Jadran’ to be Tito’s ship and an insignificant issue.

Thus, both have ‘outed’ themselves. Both Milatović in his ‘Europeanism’. And Milanović in his ‘sovereignism’. And that book, it seems, has even been read in notoriously slow Brussels.