As Europe’s longest ruler, it is a surprise that Milo Djukanovic is only 58. He has served as prime minister or president of various iterations of Montenegro since 1991 – spanning the collapse of Yugoslavia and across and beyond independence of the nation in 2006.
What is the secret to Mr Djukanovic’s success? The answer is depressingly predictable: clientelism and the buying – or, depending on your perspective, stealing – of power.
The beauty of Montenegro hides this ugly truth. Most know it as a tourist idyll with pristine beaches, crystal lakes and picturesque mountains. But holidaymakers rarely realize they enter less a country, more a private fiefdom, run for the benefit of the president and the small coterie that surrounds him.
If not well known, his graft and links to the mafia are well documented. He has been the inglorious recipient of the award for “Man of the Year in Organized Crime and Corruption”, and Freedom House has downgraded the country from new democracy to a hybrid authoritarian regime. Yet of late, Mr Djukanovic has run into a new challenge. The pot that feeds the partisans has been chronically depleted: the cupboard is bare.
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