The Prime Minister has the obligation to answer all the questions of the MPs and must not sabotage them in the performance of their supervisory function, given that the executive power is elected and controlled by the Parliament.
This was assessed by the interlocutors of "Vijesti" in response to questions about whether Prime Minister Milojko Spajić understands his role and the role of the Assembly in the right way, after he initially refused to attend yesterday's prime minister's hour, and then changed his mind and came to answer the questions of deputies.
The interlocutors say that everyone on the public stage knows that the state should be managed in accordance with the Constitution, laws and procedures, but that politics is "made into reality" in a targeted manner.
On Wednesday, Spajić allegedly informed the Speaker of the Assembly Andrija Mandić that he would not come to the prime minister's hour. At the session of the collegium of heads of parliamentary clubs, held that evening, Mandić called the prime minister so that everyone in the room could hear him. Spajić, as some participants of the collegium told "Vijesta", said that he would not come to the prime minister's hour and accused the deputies of obstructing the adoption of the budget with a large number of amendments. In the meantime, he changed his decision and appeared in the Assembly yesterday.
After the prime minister's hour, Spajić confirmed to journalists that on Wednesday evening they had a "slightly more heated discussion" at the collegium.
"It is somehow peculiar to us in Montenegro, and I don't think we should make a bogey out of that story. I just expressed satisfaction because we have so many reforms that need to be adopted in the parliament, we have a budget and we don't want to go into temporary financing," Spajić said.
Ana Nenezić, executive director of the Politiko Institute for Socio-Political Research, told "Vijesti" that the parliament elects and controls the government, i.e. MPs as elected representatives of the citizens, and that therefore the prime minister has an obligation to provide parliamentarians with answers to all questions that interest them and to must not sabotage the performance of the control function.
"Otherwise, we would return to the period when the then Prime Minister (Milo) Đukanović talked about a parliamentary dictatorship, at the same time centralizing all power in one place," Nenezić assessed.
She pointed out that Spajić's messages are not yet at that level, although she is insulting to everyone who trusted him to be at the head of the executive power.
Srđan Perić from the Reversal Movement states that the antagonism between the executive and legislative authorities is natural, in the sense that the government wants to impose its ideas and courses of action in the fastest and most operational way possible, and that the parliament tries to control it and have a strong influence on creation of policies of the executive branch.
"Ultimately, MPs elect the Government, not the other way around. The country should be managed in accordance with the Constitution, laws and procedures, and no one can be denied the right to ask or propose something, and the Government accepts or rejects it and takes responsibility for it," said Perić, adding that everyone on the public stage they know, but that they are purposefully entering "the zone of making reality shows out of politics".
Miloš Konatar, head of the parliamentary club of the Civic Movement (GP) URA, told "Vijesti" that Spajić should not be "afraid of deputies" and "run away from the Assembly". He emphasizes that the Prime Minister was elected to office by the MPs, and that attending the prime minister's hour is his obligation according to the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly, and not a question of his will.
"It is his obligation to answer the questions of the deputies, and it is understood that he should show respect to the deputies, but also to the Parliament as an institution," he said.
At the beginning of the Prime Minister's hour, he demanded that Spajić apologize to the MPs for his inappropriate behavior.
The parliamentary majority were not in the mood to comment on Spajić's reconsideration of coming to the prime minister's hour.
Andrija Nikolić, head of the parliamentary group of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), told Spajić at the session that he hopes that he will not have to communicate with citizens' representatives via speakerphone in the future, and that he will follow his obligations in parliament in accordance with the Constitution and Rules of Procedure.
"Given that we almost fell into an unacceptable practice, that after you failed to read the expositions in front of the MPs, you avoid appearing at the prime minister's hour", he added.
On October 31, at the beginning of the Assembly session at which his Government was elected, Spajić read only a few introductory sentences from the exposition and the proposal for the composition of the new government, which caused a stormy reaction from the opposition MPs who asked him to show basic respect for the Assembly, and some pointed out that he violated the Constitution because he is obliged to present his program in the parliament. Spajić then said that the MPs were already familiar with the exposé that he previously submitted to the Assembly.
Ana Nenezić warns of the worrying tendency of politicians of the younger generation to relativize respect for the Constitution and the law, for which, she underlines, there must be no justification.
"The assumed obligations of the leaders of all branches of government must be implemented in a way that does not contradict the system and regulations," she assessed.
Perić says that the root of the problem lies in the fact that the state got a generation of politicians, a significant part of whom have mastered "demagogic formulas for manipulating public attention".
"There, the main course of action is subordinated to the party and not to the general interest, because on the basis of party profits, one wants to accumulate power, among other things, for the sake of survival on the public stage," he said.
The interlocutor assessed that in this job they are ready for things that can be of any concern - from party recruitment, which is a euphemism for political corruption, to smearing dissenters in a completely sophisticated or the most down-to-earth way - depending on the need.
"This creates an environment in which the decent world often shy away from politics, because either you will pander to them or you will be followed by a 'hot rabbit'. This makes the attempt to change this political practice pointless," he said.
The general interest, as he pointed out, is for the parliament to control and influence the work of the executive power, but also to initiate a meaningful debate, and for the subjects in it to have a reasonable course of action.
"Anything beyond that is an escape into a reality in which both parties do not feel responsible for subordinating their behavior to general, not party, or personal interest of any kind. Because when you enter the zone of reality shows, it is no longer important whether something makes sense or not, whether something is legal or not, but who made a bigger scandal, a more striking spectacle, who shouted louder or who made a more effective comment to someone. We need a turnaround in relation to such a perception of politics", concludes Perić.
The majority gave up on the question, Spajić came "with a temperature"
Yesterday, Spajić said in the Assembly that he was there to answer all the questions that the MPs had.
"I came with a fever and the flu, but that's no excuse not to respect the institutions of the state," Spajić said.
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The President of the Assembly Andrija Mandić said at the beginning of the prime minister's hour that the Government was elected less than two months ago and that it is the first to come to answer the questions of the MPs, and not even 100 days have passed since its election.
GP URA denied this, reminding that the Government of their leader Dritan Abazović came to parliament a month after it was elected.
Mandić also said that they agreed with the prime minister that the parliamentary majority would drop the question because the prime minister has "important obligations".
Konatar: There is no obstruction to the adoption of the budget
Commenting on Spajić's allegations that MPs are obstructing the adoption of the budget, Miloš Konatar says that he did not recognize anyone's intention to obstruct the process.
"This is also shown by the dynamics in the Assembly, considering that the discussion started two days ago, and the time for discussions and discussions on the budget is prescribed and limited by the Rules of Procedure," said Konatar to "Vijesta".
As he added, the point of amending the budget proposal is the mechanism by which MPs can improve the budget, such as the proposals of GP URA MPs to increase the salaries of educators, employees in public administration and the judiciary, increase pensions for all pensioners without exception, and many other quality proposals.
Konatar said that the prime minister must learn that in parliamentary democracies such as Montenegro there is a division of power and that the Assembly is the center of the system and the most important institution.
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