New Election or Majority in Montenegro

For the latter, there are several options from a party government with a concrete political programme up to a transitional government whose task would be to organise elections.

Forming a new government is a more realistic option than the new elections, though all the combinations currently at stake seem difficult to achieve, Free Europe activist and Montenegrin columnist Stefan Djukkiq tells Radio Europe.

The most real “is to form a new government, however impossible it may now seem to be”, he says.

On August 20th, Montenegro's Assembly has voted the no-confidence motion against Abazovic's government.

For this motion, 50 of the total 81 MPs have voted.

Abazovic's government will function with technical mandate until the election of the new government.

Who with whom would form the new government?

Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which has initiated the fall of the Abazovic government, has called for reaching an agreement to organise extraordinary parliamentary elections.

“After two bad experiments by 2020 [the government of experts and the Minority Government], we will have to agree who will prepare these elections to eventually secure a European government”, DPS have said, adding that they are ready for a constructive dialogue with all parliamentary parties.

The pro-Serbian Democratic Front expects parliamentary majority parties, released from the August 2020 elections, to reach agreement on forming the new government.

The then parliamentary majority is made up of parties gathered around the DF, the Democrats of Alexa Beciqi, the U Civic Movement Abazovic's RA and Socialist People's Party (SNP).

They've defeated The DPS alone with one more mandate in the Assembly, forming the government led by Zdravko Krivokupic in December 2020.

This government has been operating until February of this year, when it has collapsed at the initiative of then Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic.

However, between The URA and SNP on one side and the Democrats on the other have opened a fierce political conflict because the Democrats have voted for the fall of the Abazovic government.

Prior to the vote of no confidence in the Assembly, Abazovic ordered his former partners that the “do not call him at the negotiating table” after the overthrow of his government.

A series of communiqués have been published in the opinion, through which these parties accuse each other of treason, of co-operation with the DPS and reject the possibility of agreeing to establish a new government.

Smaller parliamentary parties, on the other hand, seek urgent agreement on the date of elections and on the government that would prepare them.

The transitional government as option

The chairman of the Association of Lawyers of Montenegro, Branislav Radulovic, says that after the fall of the Abazovic government, there are two possible options on the table for the Abazovic government to continue operating on technical mandates until the new elections or to form a transitional government.

The question is whether the parliamentary majority who have voted distrust of the existing government will allow the mandater with the technical mandate and deputy prime minister from this position to go to the polls... or would agree to form a neutral government, which would enable all subjects to be equal in the” election process, Radulovic says.

Abazovic's government has been ousted by Djukanovic's DPS, Alexa Beciqi's opposition Democrats, some smaller civic parties and some minority parties.

Radulovic says the technical government would certainly have the support of two-thirds of MPs, but would not include party leaders.

That government wouldn't be a classic, program government. All parties would delegate to it a certain number of ministers -- party technocrats -- with neutral prime minister. That government would maintain the functional system, ensure the neutrality of the elections. It would create conditions for the future government to be stable, programming, and lead Montenegro to the European Union”, Radulovic says.

Gathering the old majority in the new government is not real.

Djukkik says it is unrealistic to expect the formation of an old new majority, which would consist of the winners of the August 2020 elections: DF, Democrats and URA.

The “leaders are very arrogant and this is seen through revenge political movements in relations between the Democrats and the URA. Initially, The URA has initiated the removal of Democrat leader Alexa Beciq, from the post of Speaker of the Parliament, and now the Democrats are retaliating with distrust of the Abazovic government”, Djukkiq says.

Western partners expect crisis resolution

Of all key international addresses, messages have been sent to overcome the existing political crisis in Montenegro.

European Parliament rapporteur for Montenegro Tonino Picaula has said that Montenegrin politics should decide whether it will continue in terms of European integration or become <x0 small saving>” of Russian and Serbian interests in the region.

Montenegro's “citizens continue to clearly support EU membership, which should receive support in the elections... A framework and such government would certainly have the support of the European Parliament”, Picula has written on Twitter.

After the fall of Abazovic's government, the US State Department has said it expects Montenegro to form a new government soon or announce extraordinary parliamentary elections.

Asked by the Voice of America if the United States would support DF participation in a possible new government, a State Department spokesman has said the United States does not consider the DF as a partner, because this subject “does not support European values”. / REL