The ruling majority in Ulcinj only exists on paper because the URA Civic Movement and the Albanian Alternative (AA) concluded an agreement with the opposition Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA) on the entry of that party into power at the local level, and some of the ruling parties are negotiating with the Democratic Party of Socialists ( DPS) about the formation of a different majority, several sources from the ruling coalition and the opposition confirmed to "Vijesta".
The government in Ulcinj was formed after the 2022 elections by the coalition "For a new beginning" (URA, DP, SD, SDP and AA) and Forca.
One of the interlocutors said that the other constituents of the Forca coalition, the Democratic Party Fatmira Đeka, SD and SDP are not part of the agreement of GP URA and AA with the party for now Mehmed Zenka.
"There are also unofficial negotiations on the formation of a second block, which would take over the management of the Municipality. The coalition partners at the state level, Forca and DP, are conducting negotiations on this majority with DPS, but there is no agreement on paper yet. Both can reach the majority. There are multiple options. It is possible, although unlikely, that no party will achieve a majority, so extraordinary local elections are also at stake," said another interlocutor of the newspaper.
"Vijesti" previously announced that secret negotiations are underway on the formation of a new government in the southernmost municipality.
The friction on the Ulcinj political stage comes a little less than a month before the previously agreed rotation of the positions of the President of the Municipality and the Assembly, which now cover Omer Bajraktari (URA) and Ardijan Mavrić (Force).
According to the coalition agreement, at the beginning of June, the URA should hand over the leadership position in the southernmost municipality to Forca, and take over the position of head of the local parliament from it, in the next two years, until the regular elections.
If the URA establishes a new majority, there is a possibility that this party will retain the leading position in the Municipality even after June.
However, if the majority is achieved by the other party, the President of the Municipality would be from the ranks of the Force, and the Assembly from the DPS.
The key to a possible new majority, according to "Vijesti", is in the hands of SD, SDP, BS, but also DPS, the strongest opposition party in the parliament. The Democrats are also in the game with two councilors, but for now it is unlikely that that party could win the balance.
According to the unofficial information of "Vijesti", during this or the next week, the head of the parliament Mavrić could be submitted a request to hold an extraordinary session of the Council of Ministers at which a new majority would allegedly be constituted.
The ruling coalition in the Ulcinj parliament currently has 19 out of a total of 33 councilors - DP five, URA five, SD two, SDP and AA one each, and Forca five. In the opposition benches are councilors from DPS (five), DUA (four), DSCG (two) and BS (one), who have been boycotting the work of the local parliament since the beginning due to alleged election irregularities. Democrats with two councilors are also in the opposition.
The President of Ulcinj URA Bajraktari and Zenka did not respond to messages and calls from "Vijesti".
Even the President of Force did not answer the calls and messages of journalists to the numbers available to the list Genzi Nimanbeg, president of OO SD Ćazim Hodžić and the president of the OO SDP Naser Resulbegović. Vijesti did not receive answers to the questions from DPS either.
Bajraktari previously confirmed to "Vijesta" that the URA is conducting negotiations on a wider coalition in the city, not wanting to specify which parties are involved and who else could be in power.
He reminded that in the previous two years, together with coalition partners, that is, since the fall of DPS, positive developments in Ulcinj have been made in the political and economic sense, from the national and local levels.
He stated that the URA maximally respected every political agreement and agreement, although, as he claims, this was sometimes not the case with other constituents.
"Thus, we showed a huge democratic capacity. "Every agreement depends on two parties, and ours depends on several, so respecting it does not depend only on us," he said. He added that the URA always advocated that the ruling coalition in Ulcinj should be as broad and politically strong as possible.
"Because every season brings new challenges. In this context, we conducted some negotiations and we will see in the following period how it will result. What we can guarantee is that there will be no return to the old way of managing the municipality, which was implemented in the last 20 years, where the main items were corruption, personal interests, various political intrigues and the like", said Bajraktari at the time, saying that Ulcinj had entered a new stage. development and that URA will make a key contribution to keep it that way.
Bajraktari then avoided answers to the questions of whether there is a crisis of power in Ulcinj and whether there will be a rotation of top positions in the Municipality at the beginning of June, in accordance with the coalition agreement.
That the relations between the URA and the Force are not exactly as they want to be presented, was also seen in Bajraktari's comment on the announcement by the president of the local parliament, Ardijan Mavrić, that he would launch a parliamentary investigation into the delay and sloppy implementation of a significant waste water drainage project for four Ulcinj settlements. Bajraktari then said that it was a matter of political games and an attempt at political discredit.
"Although it is a project of the previous government and there is absolutely no fault of ours, it looks more like a deliberate attempt at political discredit than a concern for the implementation of an important infrastructure project through the institute of parliamentary investigation. I have absolutely nothing against a parliamentary investigation into any project, but my personal dignity and the dignity of my associates are not for political games that they can continue within their party", said Bajraktari at the time.
"Something is happening" in the ruling coalition
Fatmir Đeka said that at this moment he does not want to comment on the alleged negotiations in establishing a new majority in the city.
The source of "Vijesti" from the SDP confirmed that "something is happening" in the ruling coalition, but that everything is still at the level of speculation. Commenting on the agreement between GP URA and DUA, the interlocutor from Force said that the signing of any new agreement would be a violation of the earlier coalition agreement and that all this was unexpected for that party.
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