DPS official "breaks" the coalition in Budva?

The Democrats of Budva will withdraw their representatives in the government for consultations, after the mayor Marko Bato Carević appointed DPS official Jelena Baštrica as his adviser, warning that the mayor does not have the unconditional support of that party.

This was announced to "Vijesta" by the ruling party, which has eight councilors in the parliament and is crucial for the functioning of the current city government.

"It is the right of the President of the Municipality to choose who will advise him and to independently choose the closest circle of associates in the cabinet. Why did he decide to choose the current member of the municipal and executive board of the DPS Budva and former chief of staff Lazaro Rađenović as an adviser rather than someone who is close to his Democratic Front. That is more of a question for the DF and Mr. Carevic himself, we would not make a judgment about who he has more confidence in," the party's municipal committee told "Vijesta".

Baštrica is a member of the Executive Committee of the Budva Democratic Party of Socialists and is among the 25 members who lead that strongest opposition party. While DPS managed the city, it held several important functions in the Municipality.

After graduating from the Faculty of Business Studies in Belgrade at the Megatrend University, she completed her internship at the Secretariat for Investments, and then was an independent consultant for three years for monitoring investments. Her name became significant when, in 2012, the then mayor of Budva, Lazar Rađenović, appointed her head of the cabinet, and entrusted her with one of the most important functions of coordinating the work of all secretaries and chiefs.

Baštrici then entrusts him to run the Secretariat for Finance, which he also ran during the time when Srđa Popović was elected president.

With the arrival of the new government and mayor Dragan Krapović, Baštrica was dismissed from the position of finance secretary, after which she sued the Municipality.

While the court process is ongoing, she has been engaged at the Bishop Cadmus cineplex. As Tsarević confirmed to the "News", the court ordered that Baštrica be reinstated, and he offered her the position of adviser in his cabinet because of her expertise and knowledge of the job.

"I am not interested in political affiliation. She is a person, she knows her job and that is the only thing that interests me. Everything else is irrelevant," Tsarević told "Vijesta".

What is problematic for the Democrats is that they received information that Baštrica participated in the last collegium of the President of the Municipality, where their representatives of the executive power are also sitting.

"We still do not have information in which capacity the person in question participated, so in light of this fact, we will withdraw our representatives in the executive branch for consultations. What is certain is that, as someone who fiercely fought against the DPS, we will refuse any further cooperation with anyone whom Mr. Carevic delegates as his intimate in the future, and who turns out to have had any role in the robberies of the DPS", the Democrats point out.

They remind that the previous management of the Municipality headed by Dragan Krapović showed that it is possible to run the city very successfully with new, young people from Budva who are not burdened by the mortgages of the past and who are not a relic of the time when employees' salaries were delayed by nine months. By appointing Baštrica Carević, he continued filling his cabinet and hiring people who were or remain close to the once ruling DPS.

That he is not interested in political affiliation and that he wants to cooperate with everyone, he made it clear by assuming office in an interview with "Vijesti", when he also announced that he would meet with Prime Minister Duško Marković and President Milo Đukanović.

He was a guest on the show "U žiži" and said that Budva is the most important city in Montenegro after Podgorica, that he came to work and to offer completely open cooperation and "to work as if we were one party".

The actions of Tsarević were not approved by the coalition partners, primarily the Democrats, who have not yet announced their personnel decisions.