The end of the illusion of PES's breadth: What Miodrag Laković's departure means for the strongest ruling party

Decision Miodrag Lakovića to leave the Europe Now Movement (PES) is not a major political upheaval, but it is a signal of internal disagreements and a new reputational blow to the Prime Minister's party Milojko Spajić, which is losing one of its most recognizable figures - claim the interlocutors of "Vijesti".

Political consultant from Zagreb Aleksandar Music says that Laković's departure from PES was expected and that it was only a matter of time before it happened, assessing that the strongest ruling party does not lose any significant electoral strength, but that it remains without the last semblance of breadth, with increasingly pronounced political weakness and dependence on its partners in power.

Political scientist Miloš Perović states that it is not dramatic that PES now has one less MP in the club, but notes that it still reduces their "discipline" and the number of safe votes in parliament.

“Laković was a security expert and an important voice in the field, so his departure shows that there are serious disagreements within PES regarding security laws and the management of the security sector,” Perović said, adding that although Laković became an independent MP, he can still sometimes vote with the majority.

According to him, Laković's departure is a reputational minus for PES, for the independent MP - an attempt to maintain political credibility in security issues, and for the parliament - a new "free agent" MP who can be important in close votes.

Laković left the PES parliamentary group on Friday and resigned from the position of chairman of the Security and Defense Committee, as well as from his membership in other parliamentary working bodies, following the adoption of amendments to the Law on Internal Affairs, with which he did not agree. He announced that he would continue his engagement in parliament as an independent MP. He was also a member of the Anti-Corruption Committee and the delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, as well as a member of the PES Main Committee.

PES did not respond to questions from "Vijesti" yesterday about whether they think Laković's departure is damaging them and whether they believe he should be given back his parliamentary mandate.

Mandić's shadow and the "non-existent" prime minister

According to Music, Lakovic was different from the rest of the party in two ways. First, he says, he was gentle and between the ranks, but he still regularly warned that the party was increasingly powerlessly sinking into the sphere of "politically dominant (Andrew) Mandica (President of the Parliament and New Serbian Democracy) and to suffer constant damage being inflicted on himself due to the incompetent official (Alex) Bečić (Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Democrats)”.

Second and more importantly, he asked Milojko Spajić, "the prime minister who doesn't exist", something that should be taken for granted - that he should start dealing with politics and the party because he is losing ground.

"Spajić, as we can see, is not interested in his job at all. By saying what others do not want to hear, by showing some individuality and a life outside the bot matrix - Laković has fallen out of favor with his own party," assessed Music, stating that PES will not suffer direct electoral damage because of this, but that it is also losing "the last fig leaf of breadth and inclusiveness."

He states that the ruling party has now officially been reduced to "a bunch of faceless reciters of a generic Euro-bureaucratic story, with a dubious ideological past...", a structure that is practically and publicly resigned to the fact that more than a year before the election, it is becoming what Americans in politics call a "sitting duck" - "an amorphous mass exposed to the first serious turbulence around the corner."

Unconsolidated party

According to Perović, Laković was one of the figures who gave PES professional credibility, not only in the security sector, so his departure means that the party is losing one of the MPs who could defend reforms and explain laws to the public and professional circles.

When asked what Laković's departure says about the party, especially considering that elections are next year, he replied that it shows that the party structure is not yet fully consolidated.

"PES is a relatively new party that came to power quickly. A common problem in such parties is that not all individuals are ideologically or politically fully aligned," said Perović.

Frequent schisms

Commenting on the fact that PES has disintegrated several times since its formation (June 2022) - some due to people leaving it, some due to expulsions from the party - Perović assessed that the party seemed to have "strongly personalized itself around Spajić".

"Which on the one hand can stabilize control, but increases the risk of a split with other strong figures, which has often happened for a new party," he says.

As he states, the departures certainly left an impact, each in different ways - from damaging the image of the party's internal stability, to showing that the Movement is still in the phase of political consolidation, and ultimately opening up space for competition in the same electoral field.

The first major split in PES occurred in April 2023, when he was expelled from the party. Janko Odović, for allegedly violating party unity. However, he was appointed Minister of Spatial Planning, Urbanism and State Property on 31 October 2023, when the Parliament elected the 44th Government. He was dismissed from his ministerial position on 23 July 2024, as part of the Government's restructuring, and appointed as a special advisor to the Montenegrin Mission to the EU in Brussels.

In October 2023, a female MP left PES Jevrosima Pejović, while Radinka Ćinćur left the party during the same period, and her split with the Movement was formally confirmed in February 2024.

The biggest blow to PES came at the end of February of that year, when the president of the country and one of the founders of the Movement, Jakov Milatovic resigned from all positions in the party, stating that its way of working had strayed from the original principles on which it was founded.

The very next day, the then Minister of Justice was expelled from the party. Andrej Milović, due to the party's dissatisfaction with his work, but also his public appearances, which opened a new phase of internal party disintegration.

The opposition keeps PES's head above water

Aleksandar Music believes that PES is still benefiting from "the remnants of the benefits of the Europe Now 1 program", favorable external circumstances (the EU and borrowing), and "the impotence of the opposition, its inability to portray to the wider electorate the depth and scale of the failures, and even grotesque episodes, of this Government."

As he said, the opposition is spending its time on speeches and performances in the Parliament and on committees, but it is failing to penetrate the wider social masses, to impose its narrative, to bring Spajić out into the open...

"... Which indirectly keeps PES's head above water, and mostly helps Mandić to completely suck out his victim (PES) by June 2027 and strengthen himself to the point where he can dictate everything," claims the "Vijesti" interlocutor.

He points out that the Parliament and the Security Committee are not unimportant, but that most Montenegrin politicians "mentally have never left socialism" - for them, he claims, sessions and meetings are the pinnacle of politics, and they do not realize that politics has long been happening elsewhere, on the electoral field, in the media, in popular culture...

"While the opposition wastes time on stiff rituals, Spajić buys the remaining minutes of political life, Bečić abuses the security system, and Mandić, after such two political conundrums, smoothly rounds out the story of his ascent to the final step of his career," concluded Music.

The holder of the mandate is a deputy.

Responding to the question of whether he believes that Laković should regain his parliamentary mandate, like all independent MPs who left parties, Perović reminded that in practice this almost never happens.

"Although it seems strange that MPs who leave the party from which they were elected to parliament retain their mandates after leaving the party, the achievement of modern democracy is that the owner of the mandate is the MP. The concept of representative democracy implies that citizens, the bearers of sovereignty, temporarily transfer their sovereignty to their representatives (MPs) for a limited period... Therefore, the achievement of modern democracy is that the owner of the mandate is the MP," he explained.