Milojko Spajić Is a Citizen of the World

Written by Đorđe Šćepović 

It’s fascinating how some so-called opposition media remain steadfast in their mission to defend Milojko Spajić and his party at all costs. In this ongoing and notably sincere endeavor, our supposed guardians of public conscience resort to well-worn tactics of relativization. What we’re witnessing is a textbook case of downplaying Spajić’s role in dismantling a multicultural and civic Montenegro.

In their desperate attempt to shield Spajić, they resort to the cheapest tricks, with the usual target being – predictably – the Democratic Front (DF) and its patron, Aleksandar Vučić. This focus is entirely appropriate. The DF and its Belgrade boss should indeed be held accountable. However, for our brave critics, the DF is a safe target – easy to hit without consequence, since it’s not the hand that feeds them.

If that’s the perspective we choose, then our reality becomes something like this: "DF is the government. DF controls the cabinet. DF is invited to feast at the table of power. And the wholesale looting of institutions by political actors – akin to Attila the Hun’s ruthless raids – is merely the unfortunate legacy of the previous regime." Really?

If the DF is calling all the shots, what exactly is the role of Prime Minister Spajić and the ministers he appointed? What about the government he leads? How destructive, then, is the hand that feeds? The hand that tears up the Constitution? Is the DF acting alone in carrying out Belgrade’s bidding – or are the hands intertwined? One hand washes the other, and many hands make… overwhelming force?

Who allowed such an obscene desecration of Duklja’s legacy? And who chooses to stay silent in its aftermath? It’s painfully clear that both Milojko and Andrija take a certain pleasure in these grotesque displays of disrespect toward Montenegro’s land and history. But there’s one crucial difference – Milojko is the Prime Minister. First among equals. Sadly, equal only in their servility to Aleksandar Vučić.

As someone holding the highest public office, Spajić had a duty to prevent the disgrace of Duklja. And if this act had taken place in secret, which it didn’t, or under the cover of night, which it didn’t, since it happened in broad daylight, then he should have publicly condemned this crude and chauvinist spectacle. Instead, the Prime Minister chose silence.

We all know that Andrija has dreamed of such theatrical provocations since his early days in the opposition, playing the martyr and the warrior for all things Serbian – in his mind, a modern-day Lazar of Kosovo. No matter how much someone tries to hide the truth–with makeup, powder, or even expensive cosmetic surgery–it doesn’t change the reality. And in this case, the reality is this: Milojko was fighting for the same goal. That polished, snake-oil rhetoric wouldn't even sell at a flea market anymore. The outcome of every new election speaks for itself. Milojko’s narrative is outdated, damaged goods–something only party loyalists or complete fools are still willing to buy. Only a captive mind can believe in the fairy tales told by those who kiss the coffin of Atanasije Jevtić.

And who, besides the Prime Minister and his Ministry of Culture, is responsible for protecting Duklja from the circus-like yelling and dancing led by bishops of the Serbian Church? Isn’t that the responsibility of the Prime Minister’s mayor of Podgorica? Or has Duklja officially become property of the Serbian Church? If that’s the case, it would be nice if the mayor would make a public statement. The people of Podgorica deserve to know that their city and its cultural heritage are being managed by priests, not by the local government. Duklja, once dismissed as a satanic fabrication, is now a piece of land glorified by followers of Nikolaj Velimirović.

And really, what’s the difference between the woman who jumped around in a trance, humming over graves in the yard of the Vlach Church in Cetinje, and the crowd doing the same thing in Duklja, trampling on Montenegrin history, dancing in circles over the bones of our ancestors? She was arrested. What about them?

Are the NGO warriors who fought against all the evils of the former regime still going to insist that this is just a leftover from thirty years of tyranny? Are journalists and commentators on Spajić’s media platforms still going to keep “opening our eyes” with manifestos on Greater Serbian nationalism–manifestos where Milojko Spajić isn’t even mentioned in a footnote? Because, you see, Milojko is a “citizen of the world.” The specter of chauvinism is hiding in his allies' closets.