Yesterday, DPS president Milo Đukanović used the term fascists to name the media and NGOs that have dealt with his son’s business and dared to point out the enormous illicit enrichment of his family and related criminal groups.
Đukanović has also previously publicly called for “extermination” of his opponents and critics from independent media and the civil sector, but the latest fascism accusations show that Montenegro is sliding into an open dictatorship. Such messages are a clear lynching call and are particularly dangerous because they come from a man who controls key institutions of the system from the shadow, while also maintaining ties to the criminal milieu for decades.
It is not a coincidence that MANS is the target of Đukanović’s dangerous rhetoric, because it is us who discovered a mechanism that allows his son to racketeer the citizens forced to pay the cost of his enrichment through their electricity bills. That is why, in the case of son Blažo Đukanović, it is not about entrepreneurship, but about open living off the backs of citizens of Montenegro.
Namely, the business of construction of small hydropower plants by younger Đukanović guarantees profit only and exclusively because his father’s government proposed the law guaranteeing him to sell everything plants produce at prices higher than the market ones, and the parliamentary majority adopted it. All this is at the expense of citizens who will pay the difference that goes to Blažo’s pocket from their home budgets through inflated electricity bills.
This is a perfect example of capturing of the state, where the benefit of Blažo Đukanović is more important than the interests of all citizens, thus, the accusations of fascism are only a transparent attempt to cover up corruption and conflict of interest at the highest level.
Despite all the pressures, brutal incriminations and threats to which we are exposed, MANS will continue to investigate and reveal corrupt deals of Đukanović and his family, and anyone else who earns extra profit at the expense of citizens.
Vanja Ćalović Marković
MANS Executive Director
