Press release by Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Bečić

Attempts to mislead the public, ongoing for more than two years, cannot stop the reform wave nor negate historic results in the fight against all forms of crime. When the state stands upright, the loudest critics are those who once benefited from its weakness.

In 2025, record results were achieved in combating tobacco and drug trafficking networks, economic and environmental crime, confiscating illegal weapons, enforcing the Law on Foreigners and advancing other national priorities.

In 2025 alone, the Special State Prosecutor’s Office blocked approximately two million square metres of various real estate assets and tens of millions of euros in bank accounts linked to criminal proceedings. Depriving crime of money and assets deprives it of oxygen, which explains why attacks intensify when results become visible and when legal improvements for permanent asset confiscation are announced.

In 2024 and 2025, 1,138 individuals were arrested under warrants, compared to 610 in 2022 and 2023 – an increase of nearly 100%. This reflects the difference between a system that looks the other way and a system that does its job.

Yes, there are challenges and inherited structural deficits. There are difficult and complex decisions, and there are shortcomings. Every public official’s work is subject to legitimate scrutiny. But one thing is clear: continuous hybrid attacks against Vladimir Novović, Predrag Šuković, Lazar Šćepanović, Danilo Šaranović and reformed institutions are not motivated by concern for the public interest, but by fear of a system in which no one is above the state.

Montenegro must never again become an outpost of criminal structures. The state must never again be weaker than any individual. And national symbols, faith, ethnicity or language must never again serve to conceal corruption and plunder.