Montenegro: Djukanovic confident, 'I will win, I'm not anti-Serb'

Outgoing Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic said he was confident of obtaining a new mandate in today's presidential elections, underlining his willingness and determination to restore stability in the country, which has been in the throes of a political and institutional crisis for over two years. In statements to reporters after voting at a polling station in Podgorica, Djukanovic denied being an enemy of Serbia. "It is my desire to have the best relations with all the neighbours, starting with Serbia, and I think I have demonstrated this with my work", said the president, who is leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). "I'm not an enemy of Serbia or anyone in Serbia in particular," he added. However, on several occasions in recent times - in particular after the defeat of his DPS party in the August 2020 elections, after an uninterrupted thirty years in power - Djukanovic has attacked the policy he defined as hegemonic and of 'Greater Serbia' by the president Serb Aleksandar Vucic and the Serbian Orthodox Church, eager in his opinion to extend their control over the regions of the Western Balkans with a Serb population. Montenegro, he observed, must once again establish itself as a multi-ethnic, democratic and tolerant country, whose goal must be full integration into the EU.