Head of State Jakov Milatovic and the Prime Minister Milojko Spajic they got support to come to those positions because the citizens wanted changes. However, as they did not happen and as the bad practices of the former government continued, along with unrealistic promises and fights with each other, Milatović and Spajić began to lose support, which led to a worse result for their lists than they expected in the elections in Podgorica.
Thus, the interlocutors of "Vijesti" comment on the reasons for this result of the coalition of Spajić's Movement Europe Now (PES) and the Democrats, and Milatović's list "For a better Podgorica" together with GP URA.
Although the coalition PES-Democrats will have three more councilors in the new convocation of the Podgorica parliament than in the outgoing one, in the previous local and parliamentary elections they won more votes than on Sunday.
Milatović, who left the party at the end of February, was part of PES in those election cycles. Shortly after him, five (out of 13) councilors of that party did the same, forming the Movement for Podgorica (PzPG).
The list "For a better Podgorica" consisting of GP URA, PzPG and Movement for Change (PzP) won more votes than GP URA in the second coalition in 2022, but less than GP URA last year with the Democrats. Although it will have two councilors more than GP URA with its previous partners, that list got six seats in the Podgorica parliament, five less than the coalition's constituents had until now.
Docent at the University "Donja Gorica" Nikoleta Djukanovic believes that the key reasons for the poor result of the Spajić and Milatović bloc are the disappointment of the voters because there were no real changes after 2020, the difficult economic and financial situation, as well as the continuation of irrational pre-election promises and bad practices inherited from previous semi-authoritarian systems such as party recruitment, nepotism, corruption, lack of transparency...
"Additionally, their bickering with each other up to the personal level, but also the incompetence and incompetence of their administration, the constant misleading of the public, further erodes the trust of citizens, which results in precisely these results at the local level," she points out.
According to her opinion, the local elections in the capital did not lead to any big surprises, but the situation in the relations of forces that led to their announcement is similar.
"First of all, they showed a very negative and unscrupulous campaign, unprincipled pre-election coalitions, misuse of resources for pre-election purposes, and exhausting national issues and resources for party battles at the local level. Secondly, regarding the election results, many positional parties cannot be satisfied. Although they made the most of their positions in power for local elections, not all of them fared so well in relation to the resources and infrastructure at their disposal", Đukanović believes.
Đukanović points out that PzPG certainly expected many more votes, but also believes that they will be satisfied with the party's position, without which it will be impossible to form a government, and that PES's large infrastructure, all the national and local resources they used during the campaign, as well as all the measures and policies at the national level that were put into the function of local elections, did not give them significantly better results.
"On the other hand, the coalition 'For the future of Podgorica' (ZBPG) used all the benefits of the government much more 'smartly', and with the great help of that position, Belgrade, the SPC and the retrograde policies that a significant part of the citizens seem to like to hear, managed to maintain as a significant political structure", she says.
"(Milatović and Spajić) can hardly expect to strengthen the trust of the voters if they continue with undemocratic practices and unprincipled politics, without a strategic direction of development based only on economic promises".
Analyst Milena Bešić believes that the result is "as bad as expected", but also that there are several different factors that led to the drop in support for the coalition led by Spajić and Milatović.
"It must be taken into account that the support of the citizens, such as the Prime Minister and the President, was received on account of the need for change, offering an alternative to the existing political actors and practices. Easily given promises, which are difficult to fulfill, could have brought a good result once, to politicians with a short tenure, but even then it was clear that it would be difficult to keep it, because the then leaders of PES, Spajić and Milatović, had different approaches from the very beginning," she explains.
As the main reason for the lack of support from a part of PES voters from previous cycles, Bešić cites inadequate communication at the beginning of the mandate, but also the lack of implementation of the "Europe Now 2" program within the promised period, as well as "the lack of determination to end the practice of party recruitment ".
"After the split in the PES itself, which happened, the expected reconstruction of the Government followed and the formal inclusion of the coalition 'For the Future of Montenegro' (ZBCG) in the executive power, which was a key factor for the withdrawal of support from that part of the electorate of the PES- and who came from the ranks of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS)", he assesses.
When it comes to Milatović, Bešić believes that, superficially, it could be interpreted that such opportunities could have benefited him in terms of collecting political points, but he recalls that he won the presidential elections "as an opponent to (Milo) Đukanović, who is not Andrija Mandic".
"We will remember that originally it could have been Spajić himself, had there not been a 'misunderstanding' about his dual citizenship. Bearing in mind that from the beginning of his mandate, there were expectations that he would give up his party position and truly be the president of all citizens, it could be assumed that the political showdown with his former party partner, as well as leading the campaign for local elections, from the position of president would have actually a negative impact on his rating, and even on the result itself," she states.
Answering the question whether the quarrel between the heads of state and the Government is the key reason for their lower support, Bešić reminds us of the relations between the URA GP and the Democrats.
"We can't say that the 'quarrel' between the partners until recently is something new on the political scene in Montenegro, nor is it something of decisive importance for the result, but certainly that such a way of mutual communication, especially between the prime minister and the president, is not the manner of serious politicians or people who can trust each other, so how could they expect the same from citizens", explains the interviewee of the newspaper.
When asked if it is possible to regain the trust of the citizens, Bešić answers that in the Podgorica elections, "trust" is not the right word, but political support, which is evidently in decline.
"I am afraid that political support will be difficult to improve if they do not build the trust of the citizens. And that is eventually possible, only if they seriously change their approach and deliver concrete results, which they themselves promised and which the citizens expect from them. We saw how it looked in the case of GP URA and Abazovć, as prime minister. I would like to be able to conclude that the drop in support for both of them is partly the result of campaigning for local elections from the positions of prime minister and president, and an indicator of the democratic maturity of the citizens," she concludes.
At the end of February, Milatović left PES, of which he was one of the founders, saying that the previous way of working of PES was contrary to the promises and values he had in mind during its creation. He was the second man (deputy president) of that party, which he created with Prime Minister Spajić two and a half years ago and which during that time won the presidential and parliamentary elections and took power in several cities, including Podgorica.
"Increased number of mandates"
Asked to comment on the result, which is below their expectations, from the "Even stronger" coalition, which consists of Spajić's party and the Democrats, they told "Vijesta" that these two parties and the ZBCG coalition had until yesterday 19 mandates in the capital's Assembly, and that they will there will be 27 of them in the next convocation.
"That is the best answer to the allegations about the Government, legitimacy, the relationship between state and local authorities and similar theses. Also, those who try to replace theses forget that the parliamentary majority at the state level consists of a dozen mandates of minority parties, which in Podgorica either do not participate in elections at all, or the capital is not their stronghold, i.e. the city where they win parliamentary mandates in parliamentary elections." , they pointed out and added that the Government and the parliamentary majority are completely stable, with never greater support in the parliament.
They also stated that they are "continuing with the pace of reform, and that the next parliamentary elections will be held when the time is right - in 2027." They explain that until now they had 12 councilors in the Assembly of the capital, and that in the next convocation there will be 14, as well as that the ZBCG coalition won 11 mandates in the last elections, and now with SNP and United Montenegro 13.
"It should be noted that ZBCG ended its mandate with seven councilors because three PZP councilors moved to 'Block 11', which, apart from them, consists of Milatović's party and GP URA, while councilor (Nemanja) Baošić is an independent councilor", they pointed out.
They also add that the so-called parties "Block 11" will have six mandates in the next convocation, as well as that the opposition will remain with the same number of mandates.
"When we add up the 19 mandates of DPS, three mandates of ES (SD, SDP, LP), and if we add two mandates of SEP, even though they were not part of the political life of Podgorica, we arrive at 24 mandates", they conclude from the PES coalition - Democrats.
The alliance "For a better Podgorica" did not want to comment on the election result.
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