The leader of the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) Andrija Mandić will be the most likely candidate for the head of the parliament if the Europe Now Movement (PES) agrees on the formation of a minority government with the support of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro (ZBCG), "Vijesti" has learned unofficially.
Mandatory for the composition of the government and PES leader Milojko Spajić the night before last night asked ZBCG to support his minority cabinet, offering them in return the position of President of the Assembly and positions "in depth", i.e. positions in state companies, enterprises and institutions. ZBCG covers some of those positions even now, even though it is not in the current government.
The source of "Vijesti" from the meeting of Spajić, representative of the minority parties and ZBCG, says that the mandate's idea is for the coalition to support from the parliament, without participation in the executive power, a cabinet that would include PES, minority parties and the Socialist People's Party (SNP). . Although this should mean that Democratic Montenegro (Democrats), which previously established an arrangement with Spajić, will remain outside the government, that party is still in the game because late last night it decided to give up the position of head of the Assembly, which it insisted on, and accept the new mandate offer, according to which two vice-presidential positions and four ministries in the government should belong to her.
According to Vijesti sources from that party, the Democrats should receive the positions of Deputy Prime Minister for Security, Internal Policy and Political System, Vice President for Foreign and European Affairs, Ministry of the Interior, Defense, Culture and Media, Tourism, Ecology , sustainable development and development of the north.
DON'T MISS IT
A source from the top of the PES did not confirm that an agreement was made with the Democrats to give them six positions in the executive branch.
"That's how it would be if the Democrats were the only ones in the government," said the interlocutor.
The mandate holder decided to negotiate with ZBCG after the Democrats last week refused to let the head of the Assembly and the government be elected by the deciding vote of the president of the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA), Mehmed Zenka.
After the elections on June 11, Spajić negotiated with ZBCG, but no agreement was reached because that coalition rejected his offer, which included the positions of deputy prime minister, minister of education, tourism, sports and youth, the position of vice president of the Assembly from the parliamentary majority and women's row ... The ZBCG coalition insisted in the negotiations that, according to the election results, the position of parliament speaker should go to them, and not to the Democrats, Alekse Bečić. In the talks with Spajić, the Democrats "reserved" the leadership position in the Assembly for Bečić.
Spajić presented the new plan for the cabinet at a meeting which, of the minority parties, was the only one not attended by the representative of the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI), whose leader, Adrijan Vuksanović, the representative should talk to later.
The source of "Vijesti" claims that the representatives of ZBCG announced at the meeting that, if the position of the first person of the parliament falls to them, they will fulfill their international obligations, that they will not question the foreign policy course of the state and that they will not emphasize topics that divide the public. After the elections, that coalition proposed the introduction of a moratorium on "controversial" topics, such as Kosovo, NATO, Srebrenica...
However, the interlocutor of "Vijesti" from the top of that coalition states that he thinks there is little chance of agreeing an arrangement with ZBCG and that the country is currently closer to elections.
"Even if we accept the offer, there would again be some confusion regarding support for the government. There is a mood to accept the offer, but what if something has not been formally offered", he adds.
The interlocutor from the meeting the night before yesterday stated that they also discussed the option of seeking the support of a "pro-Montenegro party", primarily the Social Democrats (SD), for the election of the government. He adds that one of the topics of the conversation was the possible postponement of the population census, which should be held from November 1 to 15. However, he explains that this is questionable, because it is not yet known whether the government can be formed by November.
The national parties of the minority peoples should make a statement about Spajić's offer in the next few days. Most of them did not answer "Vijesti" yesterday to the question of whether they would support the option for the ZBCG coalition to have the position of head of the legislative chamber, while some of them said that they would decide on it today.
Part of the minority parties, primarily HGI, was strongly opposed to the participation of ZBCG in the government, while the Bosniak Party (BS) previously indirectly signaled that they did not want cooperation with the coalition led by Mandić and Milan Knežević, saying that the country needed a government with a clear Euro-Atlantic orientation.
On the other hand, some Albanian national parties sent signals that ZBCG is not an unacceptable partner for them, stating that this alliance made a good step by accepting the principles of PES on the formation of government, among which the implementation of the economic program Europe now 2.0, equal chances during election to positions and the like.
As things stand now, Spajić could reach the cabinet even without the votes of the minority parties. If his idea is supported by all MPs from the PES list, 24 of them, including those who opposed the original plan to form a government without ZBCG, he, along with 13 MPs from that coalition, seven Democrats and two from the SNP, would gain support 46 MPs - five more than the minimum required to elect a government.
However, the question is whether the international partners of Montenegro, primarily the USA, would accept an arrangement that implies the participation of ZBCG in the government. The U.S. Embassy has repeatedly said that ZBCG is not their ally, and that they "look forward to cooperation with the government whose members support Montenegro's accession to the EU, NATO's unique support for Ukraine, the civil nature of the state..."
An additional problem is that the head of the Assembly is a member of the Council for Defense and Security, which, among other things, makes decisions about the command of the Army of Montenegro (Army of Montenegro), analyzes and evaluates the security situation in the country, proposes the use of the army in international forces... That means that he has insight into secret data, including those coming from international partners - primarily NATO. The ZBCG coalition, which is part of the former Democratic Front (DF) parties, strongly opposed membership in that alliance.
Spajić claimed a month ago that he had a majority to elect a government, but his support began to fall immediately after he announced that he intended to form a government without ZBCG, but with former allies of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).
Because of this, he also lost the votes of some MPs from the PES list, so he currently does not have the majority needed to elect a cabinet, which he originally planned to form with the Democrats, SNP and minority parties.
Spajić received the mandate to form the government on August 10, and the deadline to complete that work expires on November 8.
Management of the Assembly was used to block the Council
As "Vijesti" wrote, the ZBCG coalition governed the parliament from February to April last year, when, after the dismissal of Bečić from the position of head of the parliament, the then vice-president of the legislative chamber, Strahinja Bulajić, took over the presidency.
He thus became a member of the Council for Defense and Security, so at the beginning of March last year he blocked the work of that body, leaving the session whose agenda included the proposal of the Ministry of Defense on the deployment of members of the Croatian Armed Forces as part of NATO forces to implement crisis response activities. .
Bulajić then said that he refused to send soldiers outside the borders of Montenegro, and some DF officials claimed that he refused to send them to Ukraine, where the war had started.
The cabinet of then President Milo Đukanović and Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić denied that a decision should have been made on sending soldiers to Ukraine, stating that it was not even an item on the agenda and that the Council could not make such a decision without discussion and approval by Parliament. At the time, the Ministry of Defense announced that that department and the Ministry of Defense never considered or proposed to the Council the deployment of soldiers to crisis areas, not even to Ukraine.
Bonus video:
