GI “Save Brezna” sent 10 questions to Minister Radunović: Are we also, in your eyes, “enemies of the state” for defending our homes?

The residents of Gornja Brezna—organized as the civil initiative “Save Brezna”—who are fighting to preserve the only thriving village in Piva, now inhabited by young families and coming under threat of being destroyed by the planned construction of a 400 kV substation and international energy hub at its heart, yesterday expressed their strong surprise at the latest decision by the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property, led by Slaven Radunović (New Serb Democracy): to cancel the planned central public hearing on the amendments to the Plužine land-use plan. Just a few days ago, the ministry had extended the public consultation and announced a central event, yet yesterday it revoked it without any valid reason.

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“This is a scandalous decision by Minister Radunović, which shows he treats us as second-class citizens and tramples our basic civil right to be informed about a planning document that directly affects our lives and future, and to participate in its formulation. After our repeated requests—five times—to extend the public hearing, the Ministry agreed and announced an additional central hearing. The first and only public session on this major document was held in Plužine in haste and without notifying the interested public, which ministry officials themselves admitted. They promised villagers another opportunity to review the draft plan thoroughly. Expecting to hear about the new hearing date, we were instead informed that they had decided against it, with the baffling justification that “CGES had already fully informed the residents of Gorna Brezna about the planned energy project,”” stated GI Save Brezna.

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They have now addressed an open letter to Minister Radunović with 10 questions they expect answers to:

Dear Minister Radunović,

Since you have decided to deprive us of a right guaranteed to us regarding a planning document vital to our future, and have canceled the announced central public hearing, we deserve answers to the following questions arising from your and your ministry’s actions:

1. What is the connection between our communication with the spatial planning ministry and our communication with CGES? We demand from your ministry detailed briefing on the planning document, as guaranteed by laws, the Constitution, and international conventions. You reply that CGES has already informed us?! What is the “secret connection” between you and CGES?

2. Does CGES, or its leaders, direct decisions at the Ministry of Spatial Planning, Urbanism, and State Property? Or vice versa?

3. Will you or the ministry declare us “enemies of the state” and threaten us with lawsuits, as CGES did when we exposed their falsified documents submitted to the EBRD that secured a €28 million loan for the Brezna 400 kV substation—one that, if built, will be a literal and symbolic coffin for our village? Let us remind you: CGES’s documentation falsely claimed that within 2 km of the planned substation there were no homes or commercial buildings, and no living people—as if we do not exist.

4. If we challenge the legality of all technical-urban conditions (UTU) issued in the past three years under the dubious Article 218c—which required applicants to own the land, yet many private firms (e.g. Alcazar Energy) do not—will you revoke them? If you don’t, will you be complicit?

5. Since these UTUs are unlawful, will you nullify them? If not, will you be complicit in illegal actions?

6. Will you declare “public interest” for private companies like Alcazar Energy and expropriate our land, handing it to private entities with police assistance? Who are these “domestic businessmen” entering your ministry or CGES “as if it were their own home,” under what prerogative?

7. Minister Radunović, you recently stated on national TV that Brezna is one of the few living villages, but then implied that this doesn’t matter because “you cannot stop development.” Does that mean our growing, vibrant community must be erased in the name of “development”? Did it ever occur to you that our village is development—young people moving in, rural tourism, organic farming—and that it is the state’s duty to support this strategic direction?

8. In the same interview (which we include), you claimed the site was defined in 2017 as the terminus of the Italy–Montenegro cable and “cannot be changed.” Were you coached by CGES before that interview?

9. Are you aware of at least five suitable alternative sites in Plužine or Šavnik where the 400 kV substation and hub could be relocated, avoiding human settlements and ecological risk? It is not a “mission impossible” but a viable solution—if the public interest outweighs private profiteering.

10. Finally, to those who, in blatant disregard of hundreds of living families—women, children, the elderly—insist on destroying an entire community: can you imagine a civilized country like Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, or the UK approving such a massive energy installation in the heart of a picturesque mountain village whose economy is based on tourism and agriculture? And doing so on land riddled with underground sinkholes and a sinking existing substation?    GI Save Brezna affirms they will continue defending their homes and rights, and will direct further questions to all responsible decision-makers—those who persist in their plans to destroy their village.