Parties in which, due to underdeveloped democratic life and procedures, dissenters are viewed as undesirable are doomed to internal conflicts.
So, assistant professor at the University of "Donja Gorica" Nikoleta Djukanovic explains to "Vijesti" the nature of the frequent frictions in the Socialist People's Party (SNP), which has gone through several crises since its formation in 1998, several of which resulted in party splits.
There have been disagreements in the past few days, ahead of the organization of the SNP congress, which is supposed to elect the party leader. As "Vijesti" reported on Saturday, citing a source who attended the session of the SNP's Main Board (GO) held on Friday evening, at that gathering there were arguments and attacks between GO members, and the session continued only after, as the interlocutor said, the intervention of some SNP officials who called for a reduction in tensions and reconciliation.
Another source claimed that there was "argumentation" at the session, that it was "inappropriate", but that "it wasn't a terrible drama".
"(President of the SNP Vladimir) Jokovic "...at the end (of the session) he took the floor and provoked the members who warned him about his poor performance. There was talk that the upcoming congress should not be in Podgorica, that it should not be open to the public, that there should be no guests, that the number of delegates should be reduced...", said the interlocutor.
Joković told Vijesti on Saturday that there was a “verbal exchange” at the session, but no physical incidents. He claimed that the session was proceeding normally until “a man who writes from fake profiles (on social networks)” started making remarks, which, he added, provoked a reaction from other members of the Governing Body who responded to him, after which an “exchange of words” occurred.
The candidacy for the first person of the SNP has so far been announced by the party's vice president. Dragoslav ŠcekićThe possibility of being his opponent was not ruled out by Joković, who was given the "green light" by the SNP Statutory Commission in early April to run for a third term.
Speaking about how serious the new disputes in the SNP are, where they are leading and what are the reasons for their frequency, Nikoleta Đukanović says that the three-decade rule of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), from which the SNP emerged, was also contributed to by the constant "opposition and disunity of the then opposition". Recalling that in 2006 there were 13 opposition parties in the state parliament, and ten years later there were nine, she states that intra-party conflicts often ended in party splits, that they sometimes led to the gradual cessation of work or the total abolition of parties, but that there have also been cases of schisms that have resulted in the emergence of new, much stronger political actors.
"On the other hand, parties in Montenegro are characterized by a clear organization and hierarchy, a strong infrastructure, and those that are essentially authoritarian organizations do not have developed democratic mechanisms and procedures for selecting members, so dissenters are most often seen as undesirable. If, however, they have significant support from members, then splits are inevitable. Thus, the SNP has not managed to reform and adapt to changes and demands for the consolidation of the party system and overall democratization," Đukanović assesses.
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The SNP has suffered several splits since its founding, and from once the strongest opposition parliamentary group in the Assembly, it has been reduced to two representatives in the current parliament.
This party was formed after a split in the DPS. The reason was the conflict between Momir Bulatović (the then President of Montenegro) and Milo Đukanović (then Prime Minister) regarding policy towards the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (of which Montenegro was a part) and its president Slobodan MilosevicThe SNP was founded by a faction around Bulatović.
The first split occurred in 2001, when the party leadership did not support Bulatović's candidacy for federal prime minister. At that time, the SNP took over Predrag Bulatović, while some officials led by Momir Bulatović left the party, forming the People's Socialist Party.
After the 2006 referendum, in which Montenegro restored its statehood, the SNP entered a period of serious political crisis and loss of influence. Predrag Bulatović resigned as party president due to poor results in the first post-referendum national elections, and its new leader became Srdjan MilicHe remained at the head of the party the longest, 11 years.
In mid-2012, a new internal division occurred within the SNP regarding the party's possible accession to the then new alliance - the Democratic Front (DF), formed by the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) and the Movement for Change (PZP). Part of the SNP membership opposed joining this coalition, so a part of the leadership opted for independent entry into the DF, which led to a split. The excluded group, led by Predrag Bulatović and Milan Knezevic, in 2014, she founded the Democratic People's Party.
At the end of 2014, new divisions emerged within the SNP during the party congress. Milić was re-elected president, but received a third of the votes. Aleksa BecicThe split occurred in early 2015, when Bečić and his supporters left the SNP, creating a new party, the Democrats.
A new crisis followed in early 2017, stemming from dissatisfaction with Milić's leadership of the party. Faced with the crisis, Milić decided to step down as president, after which Joković was elected as his successor on 13 August 2017.
Already in April 2018, a senior official and long-time SNP MP left the SNP. Snežana Ionica and 37 other members of the Main Committee of this party.
SNP entered a minority government in 2022 Dritan Abazović, formed with the votes of the DPS, which led to new internal conflicts, but there was no formal split.
In May 2023, Danijela Đurović (then Speaker of Parliament), Marko Kovač (then Minister of Justice) and Miomir Vojinović (then Minister of Education) left the SNP. The reason for their resignations, as unofficially reported by Vijesti, was “deep and insurmountable differences with the SNP leadership regarding the direction of the party’s activities, which, as the newspaper’s source said at the time, were moving to the right and damaging the image of a civic party, which is what the SNP essentially was.”
The SNP ran in a coalition with Demos in the 2023 parliamentary elections and received 3,13 percent of the vote (slightly above the threshold).
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