Leaders of the coalition for the future of Montenegro (ZBCG) Andrija Mandic i Milan Knezevic, they promised the representative for the composition of the government Milojko Spajić that they will sign the principles of his Europe Now Movement (PES) about the fact that, as potential constituents of the future government, they will fully follow the state's foreign policy, Vijesti has learned unofficially.
Mandić and Knežević's signature on the document on principles, Spajić's is a condition for ZBCG's entry into the minority government arrangement.
"The condition is that they support the principle of XNUMX% compliance of Montenegro with the foreign and security policy of the EU", said the interlocutor from the top of PES.
After the aggression against Ukraine in February last year, the EU introduced several packages of sanctions against Russia, which the Montenegrin government has always adhered to until now.
According to the latest information, the ZBCG coalition should support the PES cabinet, the Democrats, the Socialist People's Party (SNP) and two coalitions of Albanian parties - the Albanian Forum and the Albanian Alliance - from the parliament, without taking part in the executive power. In return, among other things, he should receive the position of the President of the Assembly.
In the principles adopted by PES in mid-July and immediately sent to potential allies for signature, there is no mention of the issues of NATO, the independence of Kosovo, the genocide in Srebrenica and sanctions against Russia, which are controversial for ZBCG and for which the alliance proposed the introduction of moratorium. The document states that the foreign policy orientation of the new government will be based "on the active and credible membership" of the country in NATO, the accelerated process of accession to the EU, the strengthening of its role in multilateral initiatives and organizations...
A source from the top of PES claims that Mandić and Knežević also promised Spajić that ZBCG will vote in parliament for his party's proposals, for the announced economic program "Europe Now 2", and that they will be part of the three-fifths majority for the elections in the judiciary, which the mandate should provide.
The interlocutor of Vijesti said that, apart from the position of the first man of the parliament "of their choice", for which Mandić is the most likely candidate, ZBCG should receive 20 percent of the total number of political appointments on the boards of state-owned companies, as well as about 12 percent. from the total number of ambassadors from the political quota.
After the June elections, Spajić negotiated with ZBCG, but there was no agreement because they 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... However, the talks were renewed a few days ago, since the Democrats last week refused to let the head of the parliament and the government be chosen by the decisive vote of the president of the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA). Mehmed Zenka.
The problem for the mandate holder could be that it is questionable whether Montenegro's international partners, primarily the USA, will accept his arrangement with ZBCG. The US Embassy has repeatedly stated that this coalition is not their ally. An additional problem is that the head of the Assembly is a member of the Council for Defense and Security, which means that the representative of ZBCG, if he gets a position in the parliament, will have access to secret information, including that of NATO. The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) also spoke about this yesterday, announcing that the election of Mandić would compromise NATO membership.
"If Mandić were to become the president of the parliament, it means that the head of that institution would be a man who wanted to literally burn it down four years ago, and publicly threatened to do so, calling on his 'war comrades' to help," they said.
When asked if there will be problems with the USA because someone from ZBCG will be in the Council, the interlocutor from the top of PES replied that that coalition promised Spajić that they would follow the foreign policy course of Montenegro.
"This is an independent country, and Spajić will be the guarantor of the government's Euro-Atlantic orientation," he said.
Another source, close to the PES leadership, claims that the allies will accept ZBCG because the coalition will not be in the executive power.
"The position in the Assembly is a different story, though. Mandić will not be alone in the Council, and therefore will not have the autonomy to threaten NATO and the EU path", he added.
ZBCG did not officially announce the progress of negotiations with Spajić yesterday, and a source from that coalition claims that there is a mood to accept the offered arrangement. According to the information of the Vijesta, Knežević's Democratic People's Party (DNP), one of the constituents of ZBCG, should decide on this today.
The interlocutor from that alliance says that he thinks that the international partners will accept that ZBCG gets a seat in the Assembly. He states that he thinks that the offer would not have been made if someone from the West had not given tacit support for it.
"Because it would be difficult for PES and the Democrats to enter into this story... We will not be in the government, in which the West will have a majority package, through which it can control us. This is a kind of test", the source points out.
Spajić reckons that he will have the support of 48 MPs for the election of the government. He expects to be supported by all MPs from the PES list, except for the excluded MP Jevrosime Pejović, 23 of them in total, 13 members of the ZBCG coalition, seven Democrats, two each of the SNP and the Albanian Forum, and one representative of the Albanian Alliance.
A high-ranking official of that Albanian coalition, which has one deputy, told the News that they accepted Spajić's invitation and that the future government will deal primarily with economic issues and the acceleration of European integration.
"It is very important to continue the inclusive process with the national communities, as well as to preserve good relations with everyone in the region," he said.
According to the latest information, the Bosniak Party (BS) and the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI), which previously opposed cooperation with ZBCG, will remain outside the government.
BS unofficially told Vijest that they were surprised by Spajić's decision to arrange a cabinet without them.
"We had an offer to declare a minority government, but we didn't even have time to uphold the decisions of the party bodies about it," they announced.
On the other hand, a source from the top of PES claims that BS refused to be in power with ZBCG and that he asked for Social Democrats (SD) to be included in it.
HGI did not respond to Vijesti's questions.
Apart from the package for ZBCG, so far only Spajić's offer to the Democrats is known, which the party accepted the night before yesterday, and which includes the post of deputy prime minister, one vice-presidential position in the government, four ministries, and the position of vice-president of the parliament from among women.
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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 intends to form a government without ZBCG, but with former allies of DPS. Because of this, he also lost the votes of some MPs from the PES list.
He received the mandate to form the government on August 10, and the deadline to complete that work expires on November 8.
"Spajić realized that GP URA will not join the government"
On Tuesday, Spajić sent a message to Prime Minister Dritan Abazović to meet that day and for the head of the Citizens' Movement (GP) URA to declare whether he accepts participation in the new government, until the evening, when the deadline for declarations of other potential constituents was set, "Vijesti" has learned. ” from the source at the top of PES.
Allegedly, Abazović answered in the communication via phone messages that he could not see Spajić and "wished him luck", after which they agreed to see each other on Wednesday.
"Spajić understood from Abazović's answer that the URA GP does not want to join the government," said the interlocutor to Vijesti.
Their scheduled meeting yesterday was postponed at the request and with the apology of Spajić, that he had to meet "with some foreigners" and they agreed to agree on a new date for the meeting, sources from the top of PES and GP URA confirmed to Vijesta.
Mandatory: There is a majority for the government
Last night, Spajić held a meeting with potential constituents at the premises of PES in Podgorica, which was not attended only by representatives of the Albanian Alliance, after which he said that there is a majority for the composition of the government.
"Now we are working on the next step, that is, the creation of a (coalition) agreement," he said.
However, he did not want to specify who will be in power.
"I would not talk about subjects, but we have a larger majority than expected... The door is still open, we will not close it," he added.
Several participants of the meeting said that Milan Knežević and the head of the Citizens' Association CIVIS Srđan Pavićević asked Spajić to negotiate the government with the General Assembly of URA. One source claims that Knežević asked the representative why ZBCG could not get at least one ministry in the government, to which Spajić allegedly replied that this would be crossing the "red line".
According to the knowledge of Vijesta, the mandate holder announced to potential partners that they will receive a proposal for a coalition agreement today.
The head of the Assembly receives a "security bulletin"
In addition to NATO data, the head of the Assembly also has access to the "security bulletin", which the presidents of the state and government also receive every day. The National Security Agency (ANB) has the obligation to report to them on data relevant to the prevention of activities directed against the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, defense, security and constitutional order of Montenegro.
In addition, the President of the Assembly is one of those who has permission to access classified information without permission.
He is also authorized to determine the highest level of data secrecy - "top secret".
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