Živković: DPS will not allow a parliamentary session with the budget on the agenda

"We will not allow sessions to be held in the coming period until things return to the previous state," said Živković.

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Živković speaks at a press conference, Photo: DPS
Živković speaks at a press conference, Photo: DPS
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) announced tonight that it will not allow the Parliament session to be held on January 21st, with this year's budget on the agenda.

DPS leader Danijel Živković said at a press conference in the Parliament that Prime Minister Milojko Spajić can only expect, but that DPS will not be in the Parliament on January 21st.

"We will not allow sessions to be held in the coming period until things return to the previous state," said Živković.

He said that European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos was briefed on the actions of the opposition and the behavior of the majority at a meeting today.

"There was a lot of talk at the meeting about why the parliamentary majority attempted and carried out a constitutional coup in Montenegro, as well as that it is behaving anti-European and contrary to all positive European practices, as well as that today neither the Constitution nor the laws are valid in Montenegro, and on top of all that we have a street that has turned into institutions and we do not have an adequate response from the institutions. We mentioned that it is possible to get out of the crisis, and that is for the majority to gather in the Constitutional Committee and annul the decision they made or for the Constitutional Court to rule on the constitutionality of the behavior of the parliamentary majority in the Constitutional Committee."

Živković also said that "there were several words from the Commissioner about whether some European institutions could help in making such a decision."

"But we have clearly sent a message that the opposition, I mean the DPS, will not allow sessions to be held in the coming period until things return to their previous state. If we add to that the behavior of this majority in Budva where they are preventing the formation of a government, then it is clear that the Constitution no longer applies here, the laws do not apply, there are no institutions...", said Živković.

As he said, if there was political will, the crisis in Montenegro could be resolved within five minutes, but there is no such will, "because Andrija Mandić commands this parliamentary majority and he does not want Montenegro to become an integral part of the EU."

The opposition believes that the Constitution has been violated because the parliament, without the mandatory notification of the Constitutional Court, decided in mid-December to terminate the judicial office of Judge Dragana Đuranović due to her reaching the retirement age in accordance with the Pension and Disability Insurance Act (PIO). They claim that this was done in order to “govern without elections,” that is, to postpone local and state elections until 2027.

The Assembly concluded that Đuranović's judicial office had been terminated based on the conclusion of the Constitutional Committee.

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