The government and the opposition should open a dialogue on the election of three judges of the Constitutional Court and immediately begin talks within the parliamentary Committee on Electoral Legislation, said Deputy Prime Minister and Democratic People's Party Milun Zogović.
This, he said, will resolve the crisis in Šavnik and Kotor, as well as other open issues that burden the electoral processes.
"It is an indisputable fact that in December 2024, there were three judges in the Constitutional Court illegally. The condition for old-age retirement was met, which must result in the automatic termination of their mandate. However, these three judges acquired the right to decide on their status contrary to the law. Confirmation of this is the ASK decision that Constitutional Court judge Budimir Šćepanović violated the Law on the Prevention of Corruption, because he did not recuse himself from deciding whether he met the conditions for the termination of judicial office," Zogović announced.
In the same way, he adds, some judges in that court discussed their own status in June 2024.
"This alone is enough to fully confirm the senselessness and groundlessness of the opposition's failed political platform on the so-called defense of the Constitution. Instead of defending the Constitution, the opposition tried to defend the violation of the Constitution through a failed attempt to cause a crisis. To begin with, it is appropriate to state that there is no parliamentary crisis, and the attempt to seemingly create a crisis on the wrong issue has suffered a complete fiasco. After months of demonstrations of democracy and patience, which we do not remember on the political scene of Montenegro, the application of business procedures easily and efficiently created conditions for the normal work and functioning of the parliament. This put an end to the attempt to create a crisis. The parliament is working and functioning, and those who tried to block the parliament have a choice. Either to return to regular work and activities after the imposed measures expire, which would unequivocally confirm that the imposed sanction has achieved its goal, or to choose a boycott and extra-institutional action, which in my opinion is wrong and which I do not recommend to them, but is completely politically legitimate. I am in favor of the parliament working in full composition," he adds.
In order to achieve this, he said, a sincere and substantive dialogue between the government and the opposition "on the right issues" is necessary.
"The central issue on which both the parliamentary majority and the opposition should focus their activities is the election of three judges of the Constitutional Court, and this will clearly demonstrate the European character of all political actors. I would like to especially emphasize and additionally remind the Montenegrin public and our European partners that the parliamentary opposition was offered both Barometer 26 and the parliamentary majority's platform for an agreement, which they rejected, demonstrating a series of threatening content and political ultimatums that we have all witnessed. Faced with the opposition's fiasco in its attempt to provoke a crisis and the clear fact that there is no crisis, the current activities and renewal of the negotiation process by part of the government and part of the opposition, on the wrong issues such as the ultimatum on the Serbian language and dual citizenship, as well as the unnecessary invitation to the Venice Commission, is nothing more than an attempt to save the opposition after a political shipwreck," says Zogović.
He said that "saving the opposition from self-destructive" behavior, "with all due respect", is not the obligation of either the Government or the parliamentary majority, and least of all of the EU Ambassador to Montenegro, Johan Sattler, whose engagement in recent months points to the conclusion that Sattler "is largely taking sides, which I, as the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Montenegro, as a lawyer and as a politician, do not want to believe."
"Mr. Satler is not a governor, nor a forced administrator, but the EU ambassador to Montenegro, which is an independent and sovereign state and has its own institutions. For me, as Deputy Prime Minister for Infrastructure and Regional Development, Mr. Satler's most important engagement is in accelerating the process related to the delayed highway. For Montenegro, the construction of the Mateševo-Andrijevica section is of first-class national importance, in which the EU plays a key role," said Zogović.
He believes that insisting on the opinion of the Venice Commission has additionally, "and I would say decisively", lost its relevance after the court proceedings were initiated in Montenegro.
"After that fact, the opinion of the Venice Commission could be interpreted as a certain type of influence and pressure on the acting court to make the desired decision. Any decision of the court in such extraordinary circumstances would have a very questionable authority. Another burden that should not be underestimated, when it comes to objectivity, is the fact that the members of the VK, with very significant influence in that body, are still former DPS ministers, Mr. Srđan Darmanović, as well as former Minister of Justice and newly elected member of the DPS presidency Zoran Pažin, from whom one cannot expect any action that is not compatible with the DPS political platform," Zogović announced.
Bonus video:
