In the year ahead, we will return the country to the framework of stable development

The President of Montenegro, Milo Đukanović, congratulated the citizens on the New Year, and said that because another difficult year is behind us, "the second in a row that we would like to forget".
"And when it comes to internal developments, both the regional and the global context. Today we are witnessing the rearrangement of the geopolitical architecture of the new world order. After the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the world will no longer be the same. Retrograde processes are strengthening in the Western Balkans, the stability of our countries is threatened," he said. is Joković.
He assessed that, as far as Montenegro is concerned, there has been a further setback on the path to European integration.
"Another government, the second after the change of government a little more than two years ago and the loss of confidence in the Parliament, ingloriously ends the shortest mandate since the introduction of parliamentarism. Unfortunately, like the previous one, it has shown a dangerous level of incompetent management of state affairs, with increased influence from third parties , which led to a halt in reforms in an exemplary country that until yesterday was recognized as a European success story in the Balkans. The danger of the economic and institutional collapse of the state loomed over Montenegro. The destruction is visible through the demolition of the constitutional order by the current majority, the ruination of the judicial system, and the populist conduct of economic policy, which points to the suspicion of preparing arrangements with politically desirable foreign partners where state assets would be pledged for credit transactions, which leads to bankruptcy and the loss of state sovereignty. Improvisation and wanderings in the social sphere continue, health, education, sports, culture..." said Đukano joke.
He believes that we are registering all of this in the year when, after Russia's attack on Ukraine, the European Union consolidated its unity and made its enlargement policy and the membership of the Western Balkans countries in the EU most resolutely clear so far, as well as the awareness of the need to speed up the process, with the implementation of reforms from sides of candidate countries.
"Montenegro, which had the most chances for rapid advancement, had the most negative European Commission report on progress since the opening of negotiations for EU membership in the year we are sending off. However, even in such conditions, Montenegro, as a member of NATO and still a leader in European integration, thanks above all to the responsibility of the citizens, as well as the responsible action of the state-forming political forces, it managed to resist all destruction and to keep the country on a strategic European and Euro-Atlantic course. Such an experience also has its historical foundation," said Đukanović.
As he says, the words of Duke Gavro Vuković, written at the end of the 19th century, can be literally copied to this time: "In foreign policy, we took a gigantic step forward, but for internal conditions, in the opposite direction, precisely to a terrible crisis".
"That Montenegro can reach European and world heights was confirmed by our sportsmen and women, both collectively and individually, who brought joy to our homes this year and reminded us how much we can do when we are together. A year fraught with problems and challenges made a particularly valuable feat - the launch of the first Montenegrin satellite into orbit, for which we owe gratitude to our youth - remains in the shadows", announced Đukanović. He adds that he is sure that "we have the desire, energy and potential to stop the further devastation of fundamental values, to protect the constitutional order of the country and overcome the current political and institutional crisis through dialogue and agreement on the election of judges of the Constitutional Court, and the organization of extraordinary parliamentary elections, so that we can form a responsible and competent government as soon as possible, which will seriously approach the solution of accumulated economic and social problems, unblock reforms and speed up the European path of Montenegro".
"For such an approach, we have the commitment of the majority of Montenegro and the full support of our European and NATO partners. This instills optimism that in the year ahead we will return the country to the framework of stable development and create conditions for a realistically sustainable better life for all our citizens, and make the realization of the European goal. I wish all citizens of Montenegro, our diaspora, representatives in military and diplomatic missions, all our people wherever they are, good health, peace, harmony and prosperity in the New Year, 2023. May Montenegro be eternal," he concluded Đukanović in the congratulatory message.
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