While the president of the state and leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Milo Djukanovic announces the shortening of the mandate of the Parliament, the parties of the parliamentary majority are looking for a way out of the months-long political crisis in different versions of the old-new executive power.
The strongest parliamentary group, the Democratic Front, still advocates the formation of the Government Miodrag Lekić although that attempt failed, as long as GP URA and the Socialist People's Party (SNP) do not give up on cabinet reconstruction Dritan Abazović - who is in a technical mandate because he lost the confidence of the parliament.
After Đukanović's conversation two days ago with the ambassador of the Republic of Ireland Ronan Gargano it was announced that the completion of the Constitutional Court "creates conditions for the regularity of presidential elections and opens up space for a decision to shorten the mandate of the parliament and go to early parliamentary elections so that the country can finally get out of the crisis".
On the other hand, representatives of the DF, GP URA, SNP and the Movement for Change are invited to discuss the new executive power. Slaven Radunović (DF), talked on Tuesday at Villa "Gorica". The Front is trying to use the period until March 16 and provide support to Lekić because that is the last day when, based on the amendments to the Law on the President, he can form a government.
Đukanović, however, considers those provisions unconstitutional, but it remains unclear how he believes that elections for the Assembly will take place before August 2024, when the deadline for regular voting is due.
According to the interpretation of Front officials, in mid-March, three months passed since the Demos leader received the mandate to form the government from the Assembly, upon the entry into force of the amendments to the Law on the President.
During the talks on Tuesday, as the source told "Vijesti", there was no progress in the direction of supporting Lekić. "SNP is supposedly in favor of continuing the talks, GP URA is not," said the interlocutor.
At the same meeting, the representatives of the Front told their colleagues from the SNP and GP URA that they are not ready to support the reconstruction of Abazović's Government.
Although he does not have the support of the Assembly, the Prime Minister believes that there is nothing illegal in reconstructing the cabinet. He and his ministers from the SNP also publicly testified about this. The last time the Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović, who said that the parliamentary majority can move towards stability regardless of the outcome of the presidential elections.
"That should be the reason to move towards stability, for the parliamentary majority, regardless of the outcome of the presidential elections, to agree on the government, and reconstruction, possibly, or the mandate..." he said recently for the Voice of America, after his visit to the USA.
Damjanović's calculation is that the deadline for the formation of Lekić's government expires on 22-23. March, i.e. from the moment when the leader of Demos "received a mandate in the parliament from the president of the parliament"... "The fact that Mr. Lekić has 90 days and that he can return his mandate, and that the mandate is given to someone else, indicates that there is option. The only option to go to extraordinary elections at the moment is to shorten the mandate of the Assembly, and that depends on the parliamentary majority. From the position of a member of the government, looking at the relations in the parliament, I do not see that possibility at this moment," explained Damjanović.
"Vijesti" interlocutors from the opposition and a journalist Nikola Markovic they do not understand the arguments of the ruling elite, stating that it is not guided by the interests of the citizens.
"After everything that happened on the political scene in the last two years, the call to reconstruct the Government or form a new one without holding elections is proof that the political elites only care about party and personal interests, not the interests of citizens. Because the parliamentary majority from August 2020 obviously no longer exists, and there have been so many events that have changed the political scene that citizens have the right to give their opinion about it in the elections," says Marković, who is the director of TV Nikšić.
He repeats that it is complete nonsense to reconstruct the Government that was overthrown almost half a year ago.
"The lack of principles on our political scene is also shown by the fact that some of the parties that overthrew that government voted for the budget rebalancing, and then the budget of Abazović's government. As far as I know, this has never happened anywhere except in Montenegro," says Marković.
On the new arrangements for the exit of the crisis, the vice-president of the Social Democratic Party Bojan Zekovic also repeats the old assessment: "Reconstructing a fallen government is just as possible as operating on a deceased patient." "It is clear how much fear those who run away from the election into such nonsense," he said.
Spokesman of the Social Democrats Nikola Zirojevic says that the parliamentary majority ceased to exist with the fall of the Government Zdravka Krivokapića and that every attempt to patch her up was unsuccessful.
"Once again, we had a tirade and threats to the president of the state with signatures, the adoption of an unconstitutional law, after which it was again shown that, like last time, 41 signatures of the so-called "parliamentary majority" does not exist. In this sense, any "continuation of negotiations" would be doomed to failure, and the damage, as before, will only be suffered by the citizens of Montenegro. As for the idea of the reconstruction of the Government, which was voted no-confidence half a year ago and which failed, such a crazy idea, apart from ridicule, does not deserve any comment at all", said the spokesperson of the opposition SD.
Other parties, including the prime minister's GP URA, did not answer the questions of "Vijesti".
Those who are not allowed to vote want to run the country
Bojan Zeković sees the way out, as the SDP has repeatedly announced, in the parliamentary elections:
"When you have deeply delegitimized political representatives, three failed governments in two years, the blockade of the European road, internal divisions, when the main "fighter against smuggling" the Prosecutor's Office suspects that he actually appropriated the cigarettes he was burning together with the Prime Minister... it is clear that it is necessary return the mandate to the citizens to choose a further political path. The legitimacy of the deposed government, which they want to "revive", is best shown by the fact that the parties that make up it cannot even participate in the presidential elections. They cannot even participate in elections, and they want to lead the country.
Vukić: We have legitimacy because 41 is more than 40
"Both proposals are on the table. We just need to sit down and agree on the details of the agreement and turn it into an agreement," Dragan Vukić, SNP deputy, told "Vijesti".
He believes that the parliamentary majority, as he states, as of August 30, 2020, still has its legitimacy through 41 deputies because 41 is more than 40.
"I think we need to strengthen that majority by 2024 and try to improve the quality of life of citizens through serious reforms that we all agree on, and at the same time build the institutions of the system that were disintegrated during the period of DPS rule," he added.
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