The continuation of the session of the Pljevlja Municipal Assembly (MA), which formally began on December 29th last year, is scheduled for Thursday (January 22nd) - it was agreed at the collegium of heads of the local parliament's councilor clubs.
The session was scheduled even though there have been no meetings yet of the leaders of the ruling coalition there, some of whom - namely the Europe Now Movement (PES) and the Democrats - have called for a redefinition of coalition cooperation, before the adoption of this year's budget.
The Municipal Assembly told "Vijesti" that the continuation of the session had to be scheduled in order to comply with the Rules of Procedure, despite the fact that there were no talks between coalition allies. However, they did not specify under which provisions of the Rules of Procedure the continuation was scheduled. According to that document (Article 76), the head of the Municipal Assembly is obliged to convene a session that is postponed (due to lack of quorum) within a period that cannot be longer than 10 days from the postponement.
The session of the Municipal Assembly, which was supposed to discuss the budget proposal, was not held due to a lack of quorum. Out of 34 councilors, 13 appeared in the assembly hall, of which only four were from the ruling coalition.
Due to its non-maintenance, the local government entered the New Year with temporary funding.
A few days before the December session, the municipal boards of PES and Democrats called on the leadership of New Serbian Democracy (NSD) to urgently initiate coalition consultations and launch the process of redefining relations within the local government, before the municipal session is held.
In a joint call for a redefinition of relations, PES and Democrats stated that there had been a “multiplication of problems and points of contention” in the functioning of the government, as well as individual actions by political partners without joint coordination of key local policies. They particularly highlighted the fact that the Civic Movement URA had left the local government, which, they claimed, further increased the risk of blocking the work of the municipal council and jeopardized the lawful functioning of local self-government.
"We propose that the NSD, as the largest councilor club, invite all remaining local government constituents in order to reach a new agreement through dialogue and prevent institutional blockages," the statement said.
The two parties demand the conclusion of a new coalition agreement, with precisely defined rights, obligations and responsibilities of all partners, assessing that the 2023 coalition agreement "did not ensure mutual respect for positions."
"It is absolutely necessary to urgently enter into the process of redefining relations, which implies establishing new principles, clear boundaries of responsibility, and transparent personnel processes, in order to improve the functioning of local self-government," said PES and Democrats.
Nova responded that they would schedule the talks after the Christmas holidays, but they have not done so yet. Representatives of the ruling coalition told Vijesti that they expect the meeting to take place in the coming days, before the local parliament session.
Last year, the Pljevlja parliament was blocked for almost three months due to the failure of six NSD councilors to attend sessions. The reasons for the boycott were not disclosed to the public.
However, for months there has been speculation in political circles that some NSD councilors, close to the president of the party's municipal committee, Milan Lekić, has a silent conflict with the first man of Pljevlja and his party second By Daria Vranes.
In a New Year's interview with "Vijesti", Vranes said that local government functions well and that this is evident in the results. He said that there are different political views on some issues, but that he believes that they come more from the headquarters of individual parties.
The ruling majority in Pljevlja is made up of the NSD, Democrats, PES, Movement for Pljevlja, Democratic People's Party, United Montenegro and the Socialist People's Party, whose only councilor recently left that party and joined the newly founded movement. Dragoslav Šćekić.
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