The list of the recent Minister of Justice Andrej Milović, the movement that should soon be presented to the public by his predecessor in the ministerial position Marko Kovač, the Party of European Progress (SEP) of the former Prime Minister Duško Marković and the movement "Revolution" - should appear independently in the upcoming elections in Podgorica, while other political actors have yet to decide in which arrangement.
The President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, will call the elections in the capital for September 29 today, after the Podgorica parliament was dissolved on Wednesday by the votes of members of the opposition, the Movement for Podgorica close to Milatović, the Civic Movement (GP) URA and one member of the Movement for Change (PzP). The outgoing government in Podgorica consists of the Europe Now Movement (PES), a coalition gathered around the former Democratic Front (DF), Demokrata and GP URA.
This will be the first appearance at the polls for the lists of Milović, Kovač and Marković, while Preokret participated in the previous elections in Podgorica and some other municipalities, held in the fall of 2022.
Milović is preparing for an independent appearance on a list that will include "well-known citizens of Podgorica, who have not been politically engaged anywhere", a source familiar with his plans told "Vijesta". The former minister and member of the PES Presidency scheduled a media conference for Monday. In the background of the poster that announced the press on the X network, you can see the Millennium bridge and the panorama of Podgorica.
The movement announced by Kovač will definitely appear independently in Podgorica, as the former minister announced to "Vijesta" a month ago. "Vijesti" from that political entity, which should be presented to the public in ten days, learned unofficially that their list will be headed by the director of the Health Insurance Fund, Vuk Kadić. According to unofficial information, the list should include some sympathizers of the Socialist People's Party (SNP), of which Kovač was an official, but mostly there should be people who have not been involved in the party so far.
Without coalition partners, the SEP of the former prime minister and high-ranking official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Duško Marković will participate in the elections.
"Vijesti" was told unofficially by the newly formed party that the vote in the capital is an opportunity to see if they have potential. Sagorovnik said that they have not yet discussed who should lead the list.
Srđan Perić, one of the founders of the Preokret movement, announced that this political entity will also go to the polls independently.
"Citizens are aware that there is a politics on the stage that treats them as a means of corrupting the party staff from the same ones who count on their votes in the elections. The political class thus renders even the elections themselves meaningless. As a response to such a destructive policy, we will offer a clear and concrete program and present a list composed of capable and credible people," Perić told "Vijesta", adding that the decision on who will lead the list will be made at the competent committee of the movement and that the public will soon be informed about it.
The upheaval in the 2022 elections did not win parliamentary status.
Other political actors told "Vijesti" that they should soon determine whether they will go to the elections alone or in alliances. Some of them say that they are already thinking about potential holders of the list.
A source from PES said that the party did not discuss how it will go to the polls and who will lead it in Podgorica. It is speculated that the PES could form a coalition with the Democrats and the parties of the former DF, as claimed by the DPS, stating that the list could include all constituents of the Government, which has recently been supported by almost two-thirds of the state parliament.
"Vijesti" has unofficially learned that the most serious candidate for the PES list is the president of the party's Podgorica committee and minister of energy Saša Mujović.
PES won 13 mandates in the last elections in Podgorica, and thus "earned" the position of leader of Podgorica, which is held by Olivera Injac.
The Democrats unofficially say that there was no talk of cooperation with PES, and that "no one mentioned it". The interlocutor states that the Democrats are waiting for the results of the public opinion poll, and that after that they will begin discussions about the exit model.
They won six mandates in the last elections in the capital.
The former DF - New Serbian Democracy (NSD) and Democratic People's Party (DNP) claim that there were no discussions about the way of performance. The interlocutor from NSD said that in the coming days there should be talk about the exit model, and a source from DNP said that their bodies should meet soon and decide.
The coalition of the former DF has 11 seats in the Podgorica parliament.
When it comes to the GP URA, "Vijesti" announced on Thursday that that party and the Movement for Podgorica held informal talks about a joint appearance, possibly with the PzP. The options are for the list to be headed by a non-party figure, which is advocated by the councilors close to Milatović, or for the list to be headed by the deputy mayor Luka Rakčević, who is an official of the GP URA. At the session of the Podgorica parliament on Wednesday, he said that GP URA should go to the polls independently.
When asked how they plan to go to the elections and who, if they go alone, could lead them, a source from GP URA said that Rakčević is "the list holder" and that "that's all they have as a decision for now".
GP URA won four mandates in the last elections.
As for the DPS, that party, as the "Vijesti" source said, should define the models for going to the polls in Podgorica, Kotor and Gusinje at the beginning of August. The interlocutor announced that their representative in the state parliament and president of the Podgorica party committee, Nermin Abdić, is "one of the main favorites" to be the leader of the list, but that there are several other options in play.
In the 2022 elections, the DPS led the alliance "All for our city", which, among others, included the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Social Democrats (SD), the Liberal Party (LP) and the Bosniak Party (BS), which won 24 mandates. DPS lost power in those elections after almost a quarter of a century.
The recently formed European Union, a coalition of SDP, SD and LP, will also take part in the Podgorica elections, but it is not known whether they will do so independently. "Vijesti" was unofficially told that the idea of that alliance is to act alone, with the support of independent associations, individuals and intellectuals, but that everything depends on the development of political circumstances. Several names are in the running for their list holder, and one of them is MP and SD official Boris Mugoša.
BS, which, like the European Union, was with DPS two years ago, told "Vijesta" that their Presidency, Executive Board and Podgorica Municipal Board will meet in the coming days, and that based on those meetings, they will make the decision in which arrangement for the autumn elections.
"Vijesti" was unofficially told that, after the entry of BS into the state government, it is certain that this party will not form an alliance with DPS, and that it is possible to act either independently or in a coalition with one of the partners from the state level.
When it comes to the SNP, which in the last elections remained below the threshold, the leader of that party, Vladimir Joković, told "Vijesta" that they will discuss the model of performance with allies from the government at the state level.
"We will certainly make the best decision for the SNP and the citizens of Podgorica. We will go either independently or in a coalition with one of our partners," he said.
Perić: Politics is tearing the community apart
Srđan Perić told "Vijesta" that "Preokret" will have solutions for every neighborhood in Podgorica, but also for "sustainable and innovative development of the capital". The "turnaround", he says, will be the possibility for the citizen to vote for a specific promise, which follows the deadline for its fulfillment, while insisting on responsibility towards the citizens. That, he says, is the change that political entity is fighting for.
"The politicking that is tearing our community apart is costing us too much. We see its results at every step, starting with traffic chaos and communal disorder, all the way to urban disorder and slowness of administration - and all of this is accompanied by ignorance and the absence of any realistic and sustainable vision of what this city should look like in, say, ten years. , let alone longer than that. As I said - we need a turnaround", he stated.
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