Predrag Bulatović, a member of the Presidency of the Democratic Front (DF) and the Parliamentary Committee for the Political System, Judiciary and Administration, expressed his fear of the breakdown of judicial institutions, accusing the Democratic Party of Socialists of wanting a coup in the prosecutor's office.
In his statement to "Vijesta", he claims that the State Prosecutor's Office is a key area and the question where all relations in Montenegro will be broken.
The top of the new parliamentary majority announced on several occasions that there could soon be a two-thirds (54) or three-fifths majority (49) for the election of members of the Judicial Council, judges of the Constitutional Court and the VDT. The Front also confirmed that they will participate in those negotiations.
"DF indicated that the earlier GST was a pillar of the Đukanović regime, as well as a protector against all affairs, and it is clear that the former regime is now trying to compensate for that loss. They want a coup in the Prosecutor's Office, through a new majority and reaching a majority of 49 deputies. "Good connoisseurs of the situation and attentive followers of the public scene have already noticed which candidate for the VDT unites Đukanović and Prime Minister Dritan Abazović," says the deputy.
Not wanting to say who he is referring to, Bulatović claims that the new VDT would marginalize the chief special prosecutor Vladimir Novović and his team.
As signals of that intention, he cites the session of the Committee for the Political System, when the report on the work of the VDT was discussed.
Then DPS MP Andrija Nikolić asked the current incumbent Maja Jovanović if she plans to apply for the position, to which he received the answer that the earlier advertisement had not been completed either.
Jovanović has been in the acting position for almost half a year, which expires on August 6. At the same time, the Assembly has not decided on Dražen Burić, the candidate of the then Prosecutorial Council, since last summer. He was acting VDT at the time he was nominated, which was on July 29 last year. In the meantime, the composition of the TS was changed, and he was left without a mandate because the new law on the prosecution came into force.
The Committee for the Political System and the Assembly have so far not decided on Burić, who was presented as a career prosecutor, because in that period a sharp conflict began within the then-ruling alliance over the members of the new Prosecutorial Council (TS). All recruitments are "frozen", and the Assembly did not elect two judges of the Constitutional Court even according to the advertisement from August last year.
"The Assembly must declare itself on the proposals of the old TS of 29 July 7. I am surprised that Abazović did not discuss it with (President of the Assembly) Danijela Đurović, who is responsible for processing it. Did the Prime Minister talk to the Minister of Justice, who has a member of the TS, whom he appointed? It's been more than a month since the government election, and this should have been at the top of the agenda," says Bulatović. He reminds that Maja Jovanović's mandate expires on August 2021 and that it is difficult to finish the old competition by then.
"Unless the DPS wants Suzana Mugoša to be elected for VDT, who ran, and who in the first instance sentenced Milan Knežević and Andrija Mandić to five years in prison (coup case).
Immediately after the election, Abazović and Đurović discussed, among other things, the opening of the parliamentary dialogue.
"The new parliamentary majority - URA and SNP, under the leadership of the DPS, announced dialogue, the fight against division, reconciliation, the elimination of party employment, the unblocking of European integration, and especially the unblocking of institutions. The only thing that is visible for now is that they won the top of the Assembly by trampling the Rules of Procedure and elected the Government and the Prime Minister through brutal political fraud and trampling on Article 2 of the Constitution and changing the electoral will from the last election," said the interlocutor.
Bulatović says that the "initial environment" for dialogue and compromise is such that there is almost no room for it because, as he claims, the elections were illegally postponed and the idea of a new municipality of Zeta came up so that its citizens would not vote for the mayor of Podgorica.
Đukanović will not investigate Lazović and Milović
"The new GST has initial evident results. We also have a deadlock in the case of the role of police officers (Peter) Lazović and (Ljub) Milović, in connection with the SKY application. Milo Đukanović is interested in not touching it, in stopping the changes in the Prosecutor's Office and achieving control, and as the ultimate goal to try to win another presidential mandate with this majority, so that this Government will turn into a political one. All this means a selective fight against corruption at a high level and an ineffective fight against the mafia, especially the mafia in the police, prosecutor's office, courts and parts of the former regime. Without that, there is no EU integration," said the Front deputy.
DPS is going to obstruct the US in order to postpone the local elections until spring
June, says Bulatović, is the month of dealing with whether the Constitutional Court and the Judicial Council should be unblocked.
"I think that DPS will now find a model to obstruct the unblocking of the Constitutional Court. The reason is that they want to postpone the local elections for the spring of 2023 and hold them with the presidential elections. That is Milo Đukanović's personal goal, as well as for this majority to continue functioning until 2024," states the deputy. He reminds that in September the Constitutional Court will be left without a quorum for work, because three judges' positions remain vacant.
"If at least one judge is not elected by then, that is the basis for requesting the postponement of the local elections that were announced for October. DF will strongly advocate for the election of judges of the Constitutional Court and those who deserve it with their quality," he said.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
