New speaker of Montenegro's Parliament elected me

Andrija Ma persecuted is the new chairman of Montenegro's Parliament and, at the same time, a member of the Council for Defence and Security, which commands the Montenegrin Army.

Mandiqi received the support of 49 MPs from the new parliamentary majority coalition for the Future of Montenegro (the party of the former Democratic Front), the Movement Europe Now, Democrats, the pro-Serbian Socialist People's Party and two Albanian parties, during the vote at a session of the Montenegrin Parliament on Monday afternoon.

The Montenegrin Parliament has 81 deputies.

MPs from the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists left the hall before the vote. They tied a black ribbon to the microphone on behalf of, as they said, the black day for democracy in Montenegro.

Mandiqi is the leader of Serbia's New Democracy ʹa member of the pro-Serbian Democratic Front and pro-rus (DF) which has since been renamed as Montenegro's coalition for the Future.

Mandiqi's foreign policy priorities are lifting sanctions against Russia and attracting recognition of Kosovo's independence.

She is, too, an opponent of Montenegro's NATO membership. Due to Mandiqi's election, at 6:00 p.m. in front of the Assembly, protests were launched by the Luca Free Citizens' Forum and opposition parties.

In regional policy, Ma persecuted has extremely close relations with Serbian President Aleksandar Vuciq, and with Republika Srpska president in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik.

He also denies the genocide in Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces have killed over 8,000 Muslim men and boys during the war of the 1990s.

It is also close to the ideology of the Chetnik movement, which has collaborated with Hitler's Germany in World War II.

It has its symbolic title since 2007.

Now two decades is the deputy in Montenegro's Parliament.

He was elected to head this institution by ... vote.

Mandiqi's election is part of a broader package of power sharing.

Under the mandater's agreement for prime minister, Millojko Spaijic, with the new majority, Democratic Front parties will support his minority government in Parliament and, at the end of next year, will officially become part of it.

Official Washington has warned and voiced concern several times that the new government consists of parties and leaders who are actively opposed to Euro-Atlantic values.

Similar stance has in some cases been expressed by European institutions.

Follow me and see Putin as president

In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Belgrade with Andrija Mandiqi and another leader of the Democratic Front, Milan Knezevic, who were then in opposition.

“Meged and Knezevic have conveyed the greetings of the Serbian people to Montenegro's president, and have stressed that the majority of Montenegro perceives him as its president”, the Democratic Front has said at the time.

According to that announcement, Putin has told them that there are true “herons” and that it should “endure”.

Persecuted and Knezevic have been charged with planning a <x0-state” on Montenegro election day in 2016, along with Russian service members Edward Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov, as well as eight other Serbian citizens.

The case is related to efforts to undermine Montenegro's NATO membership.

In the first instance, in May of that year, they have been sentenced to five years in prison.

The Court of Appeals has rejected the verdict and has brought the case to new judgment.

Persecuted and Knezevic have denied the charges, claiming it was a politically installed process.

A source from the American administration confirmed in 2022 that their Democratic Front was funded by Russia during the election campaign in 2016. / REL