Podgorica, (MINA) – Young people should be more active in sending positive messages and campaigns that respond to the extremist and anti-democratic narratives that currently exist in the media.

This was commissioned in a training under a title “Identification and Deconstruction of Extremist Narratives”, organized by Forum MNE, as part of a three-year project “Communities First: Creation of a civil society hub to prevent and counter violent extremism – From Prevention to Reintegration”.

The aim of the training is to recognize extremist narratives, create positive messages and campaigns to promote democratic values, tolerance and respect for human rights.

The participants are representatives of non-governmental organizations, the media and professional associations of teachers and youth organizations.

The training, which began by presenting examples of good practice, stated that on the way to a positive campaign, it was necessary to identify the problem, explore it and examine whether everyone concerned was familiar with it. Existing researches should be used and new ones should be carried out if necessary.

»You need to choose the right timing to launch a campaign. Target groups should be identified, and the best channel should be selected in relation to those target groups, networks should be created and then we should deal with proven facts, not guesswork,” this was a message to the training participants.

The initiator of the campaign, “I will not leave, I want to make change,” Vuk Vujisić said that in a divided and bipolarized society, young people should be offered to do what they have in common.

He said that the campaign was originally launched by an NGO in Bosnia and Herzegovina to show that the country does not take care of the young people who are leaving, and that there is no information on their numbers.

“We recognized this and wanted to transmit it here because we realized that we had a similar problem in Montenegro and we saw that the problem was bigger than we thought,” Vujisić said.

As he stated, talking to those who left and those planning to leave, they identified the problem and tried to solve it.

»To be precise, through social policy and the idea of ​​forming a Housing Fund that would allow young couples to rent an apartment for about one hundred EUR, which is owned by a housing fund. After 30 years the apartment would become their property. The idea is that we have two thousand apartments for EUR 70 million, “Vujisić said.

Wind in their backs, he said, were research data that showed that almost every other person would leave the state.

He explained that, in order to promote the campaign, they used a month that was not saturated with daily political events. The target group was young but ultimately competent – who need to change the situation and help the young people and reduce the trend of departure.

Unfortunately, as he said, this importance of the topic on the formation of the Housing Fund was neglected due to current events.

He said that there are different narratives in the media and that it is challenging to work on a positive campaign during this time.

“Affirmative things are hard to get attention for. It is necessary to recognize what is a common problem of people and what is tangible to them, “Vujisić said.

Speaking of affirmative campaigns, he said that people should be addressed with a message that is understandable to them, but, he said, affirmative messages are sometimes disappointing.

“Nobody tried to say ‘we are fighting for something’, everyone is saying ‘we are fighting against something’, or saying ‘I am not fighting against the law, but’ I am fighting for a better law.’ “The question is whether we have room for affirmative topics, “Vujisić said.

The problem, he thinks, is that people want to fight against something rather than to fight for something.

“We do not yet have a political culture and this is a problem that must be changed. We have to fight for affirmative actions to come to spotlight, “Vujisić said.

He has advice on how to promote positive campaigns.

“It is important that these campaigns do not bother people and that they can benefit from them. You often have some campaigns and showing of discontent and fight for something, but you have also, for example, road blockages. This provokes anger among citizens. So make sure you don’t disturb while sending an affirmative message, “Vujisić said.

The media reported on their campaign with various messages.

“On the one hand, they were pointing out problems, and on the other they were writing that young people wanted to stay and work. It is difficult to address the divided public with the affirmative message, and to have it accepted, “Vujisić said.

According to him, the media are saturated with daily-political topics.

“Practically, no affirmative topic can be brought to light, which is why we have silenced the story around the Housing Fund,” Vujisić added.

He said that young people need to wake up, to be proactive, to understand that not all seams matter as much as the problem that affects them, which is the problem of leaving the state.

He is disappointed that the young are not more active.

“We planned, if the Government did not hear our voice, to have affirmative rallies, where we are asking for something for all of us, as something good that would gather us. Unfortunately, society is like that. But there are classic schemes that divide the public,” Vujisić said.

The training is part of the civil society capacity building program in Montenegro, through which Forum MNE seeks to motivate and empower organizations and individuals to use their resources to build resilience to the violent extremism of the communities they come from.

Forum MNE is implementing a three-year project in partnership with the Center for Legal Citizens’ Initiatives (Albania), Hope and Homes for children (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Partners of Kosovo – Center for Conflict Management (Kosovo), Center for Common Ground (North Macedonia) and the Cultural Center DamaD (Serbia), with financial support from the European Union and the Ministry of Public Administration of Montenegro.