DPM Pažin told MPs from Democratic Front: "You do not need to defend churches because no one is going to attack them"

Podgorica, Montenegro (18 December 2019) -- "I think it is a categorical moral imperative for all of us to beware of hard words. This is what is in the spirit of tradition, to which you rightly like to refer, to beware of hard words and to protect others from ourselves," Deputy Prime Minister Zoran Pažin said when asked by Slaven Radunović, MP, whether the Government is consciously provoking civil conflicts in Montenegro.

"The law has no intention to entrust churches to anyone but to believers. You do not expect, Mr Radunović, that the Government should hold sessions in one of the religious buildings. And it is utterly unacceptable to claim that it is all about the State's need to dispose of such property by placing it on the market. None of this is true. It is not the intention of the Government to make religious objects be used by anyone other than by believers,” the Deputy Prime Minister underscored.

Responding to a question by Predrag Bulatović, MP, the Deputy Prime Minister stated: “I have understood, although due to political views that are being advocated the objections are related to the whole of the law, that only three, or four articles are debatable here and we should say it openly. This law is not a matter of political ideologies, but of human rights and freedoms, and if we pay attention to these matters then we can easily come up with the best possible solution."

In response to a question from Milutin Đukanović, MP from the Democratic Front, DPM Pažin recalled that the Old Royal Capital of Cetinje is registered as the owner of the Cetinje Monastery and added: "Does anyone prevent believers from going to the Cetinje monastery? Does anyone attack, usurp, or threaten them? No one. Therefore, Mr Đukanović, you do not need to defend churches, because no one is going to attack them. And if you claim that someone is going to attack them, then you are grossly manipulating the facts. No one has the right to attack churches, and therefore there is no need to defend them, especially not with lives. Lives of all our citizens are precious. And let's not provoke that story of lives that will suffer as a result of the irresponsible, unmeasured rhetoric that can be heard. "

When asked by Milun Zogović, MP, what he, as Minister of Justice, will do in the time to come regarding the Prosecutor's Office, Deputy Prime Minister Pažin noted: “I am now informing you that, as Minister of Justice, next year, I will initiate procedures to amend the organisational laws governing the Prosecution, in order to clearly position the line of responsibility within the Prosecutor's Office, which is not the case now due to, first of all, the irresponsible legal adventurism of a number of your opposition colleagues, who, in an inappropriate fashion, unknown in democratic practice, positioned the Prosecutor's Office in our legal system, because it then seemed to them that through the Prosecutor's Office they would be able to accomplish some of their political goals, and now they see that they have been misled, and even object to these solutions, which now exist as positive legal solutions. According to our Constitution, the Prosecutor's Office is a single and independent state body, not a branch of government. However, in our country it is positioned as a branch of government, which is a deviation within the legal system. This deviation should be corrected. We will correct it together. The Ministry of Justice and the Government will pass the draft laws, and you will have the opportunity to discuss them, in order to return the Prosecutor's Office to its place and recognise it as a body of one of the branches of government. We will also make comparative solutions with the most democratic countries in the world and see how it should work. That is how it will work in Montenegro as well."

OFFICE OF THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER