(Podgorica, 27 July 2012) – During his short career as Prime Minister, Igor Luksic has presented himself as a young technocrat who speaks English and knows how to use a calculator, as someone who will implement real reforms in the economy and in the fight against corruption and organized crime.
Before the start of this year’s protests many people believe him. However, since then he has compromised himself so many times that he became the Prime Minister with the shortest mandate (as the protesters have pointed out). His political fate was sealed the moment he refused to turn his back to organized crime and corruption at the request of the citizens.
Today it is evident that Luksic is simply a puppet and that he will only be remembered as the Prime Minister that had signed many of the Government’s controversial deals, doubled the country’s debts to the benefit of tycoons, confirmed and defended the damaging and corrupt privatizations of the most valuable enterprises while ensuring that no one would have to answer for any of this. He imposed new taxes on increasingly impoverished citizens, allowed the First Bank to continue violating the law and to claim that it had returned its debts to the state (which has been shown to be totally false). In this way he not only compromised himself but also raised the possibility that he himself is criminally liable and for which ample documentation exists; meaning that he too will one day need to be held accountable.
Tens of thousands of citizens have shown what they think of Luksic’s “successes” with his economic policies. He no longer has anything new to offer to the citizens’ of Montenegro, since as a politician and a leader he’s discredited himself through his desire to protect the interests of his party mentor, which is now increasingly obvious to everyone. That is why he no longer serves as a credible facade for either the domestic public or the international community, since with concrete examples he’s demonstrated that he won’t fight to ensure that the economy is rescued from the grip of organized crime but will only act to protect the interests of tycoons and the mafia.
Luksic knows that his days are numbered so he is trying to hide the fact through cheap manipulation by labeling the protests “political,” even though it is clear to everyone that there are more than enough reasons for a social uprising. One primary reason for this is that our outgoing Prime Minister has left the economy in a worse state than when he assumed his current position.
Thousands of citizens came out into the streets because of the corruption and crime that cause concrete economic and social problems, regardless of their respective political orientations. For this reason we are certain that – regardless of who comes to power – the citizens will continue to fight so long as the costs of someone else’s enrichment are still being displaced unto the public. These protests were and will remain motivated by economic and social grievances, although they will obviously have political consequences since those who fail to work in the interests of citizen shouldn’t be sitting in positions of power.
MANS’ activities, including the most recent protest wave, will therefore continue to focus on the struggle against organized crime and corruption and we will continue to fight alongside others in the Citizens’ Front. We believe that all politicians that are opposed to organized crime should demonstrate this fact and join a united political front, while everyone has the right to choose their methods of struggle. The most important thing is that everyone’s goal should be unified: a free Montenegro whose government works in the interests of its citizens. Let the politicians fight about who will take power, the citizens will continue fighting to ensure that their hands our clean.
We are therefore certain that citizens will also expect that the next Prime Minister, regardless of who he is and what party he belongs to, will meet the protestors demands: eliminating corruption from the prices of monopolistic enterprises; end damaging and corrupt privatization agreements; establish individual responsibility for those privatizations; return illegally accumulated funds into the state budget; eliminate corruption as the largest business barrier and bring in foreign investors who actually respect the laws and privatization agreements that were signed by actually investing in their enterprises and creating new jobs; secure the independence of the University and establish an acceptable tuition rate; and to secure freedom of speech and media and to punish those who’ve committed and who ordered attacks on journalists.
Every future Prime Minister should learn from Luksic’s mistakes. This means that any future Prime Minister should do at the very least what we’ve requested above. Luksic has already shown his true face and refused to meet our demands, thus ending his career. If the new incoming Prime Minister doesn’t meet these demands, they too can expect numerous protests and an even shorter term in office.
