There are lot of differences between us and the Liberals, but we agree that Montenegro sorely needs democracy, respect for human rights, durable social policy, free media... It is equally important to convince the democratic world that all these things can be achieved here. During three and a half years in the Montenegrin Parliament we realized that the DPS [Democratic Party of Socialists, former communists and the ruling party in Montenegro] oligarchy is unable to solve difficult problems nor is prepared to engage in democratic development of our society. Above all, the ruling party is unable to resolve the relations between Serbia and Montenegro [in the Yugoslav Federation]. Someone may wonder whether our two parties will be better prepared to resolve that problem, having in mind our opposing views on this issue [Popular party supports Yugoslav federation while the Liberal alliance seeks independence for Montenegro]? We will do it by providing the conditions for the free expression of the popular will. As long as the will of its citizens doesn't resolve the status of Montenegro, the situation in the federation will be irregular to a certain extent. It will depend on the ruling regime and not on the will of the people.
Because of that we decided to offer a democratic block to the citizens. We invited all parties with democratic perspective to join us. Above all, we had in mind the Social Democratic Party of Montenegro and also the two influential parties without representation in the parliament: SDA and the Democratic Alliance of Albanians. We decided to reject only nationalist- chauvinist parties. Such coalition will form, I hope, a government which will be welcomed in all democratic states and banks. Because, it will be the government of experts, the government which will apply democratic principles unlike the present government which treats these principles as dead letter of the law. Our government will have a difficult task. The citizens will carefully monitor our work and decide whether we are pure demagogues or those who "do as they say". We must resolve crucial problems, we must show to the world that multinational and multiconfessional democracy is possible in Montenegro.
You've mentioned SDP of Montenegro as one of the first candidates for the opposition coalition. Why have the Social Democrats decided to stay out of People's Accord?
Because of their excessive demands. When Slavko Perovic and I signed the Agreement to from a coalition, we decided to ignore some issues. For example, the Popular Party didn't demand to be assigned the votes of the Democratic Party [from the previous election] because the Democratic party had merged with us. The Liberals also avoided controversy. Simply, we gave priority to important issues and took the election results from 1992 as the only criterion for the division of the seats after this election. SDP demanded that some other criteria be included, and we couldn't accept that. We regret that they decided not to join the coalition, since we respect some of their politicians. However, I think that SDP will loose much more then the coalition because of this decision [in the elections SDP failed to win representation in the Montenegrin Parliament].
Has SDP made a final decision about joining the coalition?
That is correct. Still, that doesn't mean that we won't co-operate in the elections for the local government.
People's Accord leaders visited northern Montenegro during the last week. What kind of reception did you get there?
Terrific. It seems that things are going well for us. We offered something new to Montenegro, and to the whole country [Yugoslavia]. Our citizens are tired of this sort of politics. On one side we have the ruling party which has the trust of a very small circle of personally invested people. On the other side are parties which have exhausted their nationalistic propaganda. For a first time after 1918, the Liberal alliance and the Popular party have offered reconciliation to Montenegro [in 1918 Montenegrin parliament voted on whether to merge with Serbia; PP is the political heir of those representatives who voted for the union (with white ballots and are therefore called bjelasi or whites); LA is the latest reincarnation of those voted for the independence (with green ballots and are called zelenasi, or the greens)]. Every honest person is happy because of that. If president Bulatovic had any political sense he would have congratulated us as well.
My impression from the field is that the people have relaxed. A lady from Cetinje told me that she wanted to thank Slavko Perovic and myself for healing her family. Out of her two sons, one was "bijeli" [white] and the other one "zeleni" [green]. therefore, we offer to Montenegro something that no one has offered until now: peace. The condition for peace is a democratic referendum about independence. If in the referendum the citizens choose independence for Montenegro, I will be the first one to congratulate Mr. Perovic. I believe that he will do the same if the citizens choose the federation with Serbia.
Will that be the final result?
Certainly. Considering the current situation, I believe that Slavko Perovic and myself have already done a lot. This idea cannot fail. The world will accept us only if we follow the track laid down by the two of us. Enough of nationalist primitivism! Besides, the more culture there is, the less nationalist anger. Every person belongs to a nation, but people express that differently. We want to express out national origin both as a moral and aesthetic choice. Impressions from the north of Montenegro indicate that the citizens understand our message. We visited three municipalities with predominantly Muslim population: Plav, Rozaje and Gusinje. The reception exceeded all my expectations. Meeting halls were too small to accommodate all those who wanted to hear us. Mr. Slavko Perovic enjoys a lot of respect there. But it was unusual that a lot of applauses were directed at me, although they were not as loud as those for Mr. Perovic. I didn't go there to win votes for the Popular party, but to see whether the Liberal alliance will retain the trust of its voters after forming a coalition with us. My impression was that those people trust the Popular party and Novak Kilibarda.
Do you anticipate similar reception on "your" territory?
There are some encouraging details. At a Popular party rally in Masline (town near Podgorica, auth. rem.) everything went fine. It ended with a pleasant party where one could here both Popular party and Liberal Alliance songs. A common rally in Zeta also went in perfect order. People greeted the guests with loud applauses and greeted them with two (liberal sign) and three (popular party sign) finger salute. If DPS could have anticipated that their changes of the election law would unite the Popular party and the Liberals they would have left the law alone. But the politics demands intelligence and anticipation, and they have neither. They couldn't recognize that a serious policy was developing in the two largest opposition parties. Our coalition is the only blow that DPS has received during its rule and I think that they will never recover from it.
Is there any truth in the stories that Popular party members are leaving the party in the north of Montenegro and joining the Radicals and the Serbian Unity party?
There are all kinds of stories during an election campaign. Those rumors are spread by parties whose rallies are attended by less than ten persons. It's all rather amusing. They'll see how they'll fare in the election.
How do you see performance of the state-controlled media in this campaign?
The [election] campaign is in the full swing. The election programming on the TV is simply tiresome, so that even the useful information is often ignored by the viewers. That is simply a cabaret run by DPS. We don't pay a lot of attention to that part of the election campaign. We are relying on debates and election rallies in main city squares to get our message across. We'll start in Niksic next Monday. I hope we will be able to fill the Freedom Square in Niksic; then we will continue in other cities, all the way to the final rally in Podgorica. We challenge DPS to do the same. We are not afraid to answer questions. They are!
Finally, give us your prediction of the election results.
We expect to win as many mandates as necessary. We have realistic chances of winning the absolute majority. If SDA and DS win a few mandates, as they will DPS will not be able to count on their votes. We, who will accomplish a landslide victory and those other parties, who will win based on the mood of their voters, will be able to together bring down DPS.