Part of the ruling majority in Ulcinj, which consists of the coalition "For a new beginning" (Civil Movement URA, Democratic Party, Social Democrats, Social Democratic Party and Albanian Alternative) and Forca, is secretly negotiating with the opposition there about the potential re-composition of the local government, "Vijesti" has learned unofficially from multiple sources.
The negotiations are taking place a month and a half before the planned rotation in the positions of the President of the Municipality and the Assembly, which they now cover Omer Bajraktari (Civil Movement URA) i Ardijan Mavrić (Force).
According to the coalition agreement on government, the Civic Movement (GP) URA should hand over the leading position in the southernmost municipality to Forca in early June, and take over from her the post of head of the local parliament.
However, according to the interlocutor of "Vijesti" who attended one of the meetings in Ulcinj, there is a possibility that Bajraktari, who is also the head of the GP URA board there, will remain in the leading position in the municipality after June.
"It remains to be seen whether Forca will accept this or whether it will create a crisis of government, although it is already clear that roses are not blooming in the ruling majority," said the source.
According to the unofficial information of "Vijesti", negotiations were also conducted with the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), but allegedly the headquarters of that party opposes cooperation with GP URA.
Bajraktari told "Vijesti" that GP URA is conducting negotiations on a wider coalition, not wanting to specify with which parties and who could eventually be in power. He said that there will be no return "to the old way of managing" Ulcinj.
He told the newspaper in January that in June there will be a rotation in the leading positions in the southernmost Montenegrin municipality.
Ulcinj's ruling coalition has 19 out of 33 councilors in the local parliament - GP URA, Democratic Party (DP) and Forca have five each, Social Democrats two, and Social Democratic Party and Albanian Alternative one each.
In the opposition benches, there are five councilors each from the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Democratic Union of Albanians (DUA), and one each from the Democratic Alliance in Montenegro and the Bosniak Party. All of them have been boycotting the work of the Ulcinj parliament since its constitution due to alleged electoral irregularities. The Democrats are also in the opposition, with two councilors.
Bajraktari says that GP URA with coalition partners in the previous two years, i.e. since the fall of DPS, made positive progress in Ulcinj in political and economic terms, both at the state and local levels.
"In the political sense, one of our greatest successes is the establishment of a new way of managing the city and political activity that produced historic results, but also the stabilization and balancing of political conditions, which was also a rarity in the last 30 years in Ulcinj," he said. adding that he is proud of it.
Bajraktari states that the URA GP "respected to the maximum" every political agreement and agreement, although, he claims, sometimes other constituents of the government did not.
"Thus, we showed a huge democratic capacity. "Every agreement depends on two parties, and ours depends on several, so respecting it does not depend only on us," he said.
The interlocutor said that GP URA always advocated that the ruling coalition in Ulcinj should be as broad and politically strong as possible.
"Because every season brings new challenges. In this context, we conducted some negotiations and we will see in the following period how it will result. What we can guarantee is that there will be no return to the old way of managing the municipality, which was implemented in the last 20 years, where the main items were corruption, personal interests, various political intrigues, etc.," said Bajraktari, adding that Ulcinj has stepped into a new era. stage of development and that GP URA will make a key contribution to keep it that way.
Bajraktari avoided answers to questions about whether there is a crisis of power in Ulcinj and whether there will be a rotation of top positions in the municipality at the beginning of June, in accordance with the coalition agreement.
"Vijesti" did not receive answers to the same questions from DPS and Force either.
President of DP Fatmir Đeka, told "Vijesti" that he had praise for the current ruling majority in Ulcinj, which he assessed had worked well in the past two years.
"All partners were respected, the local administration performed its work exceptionally well, and I believe that the majority of citizens are satisfied with its work. So I am convinced that there is no reason not to continue in that spirit, because it is in everyone's deepest interest. We have always respected the signed agreements, and it will be the same in the future," he said.
Leader of DUA Mehmed Zenka, he told "Vijesti" that he had heard that negotiations were being held on the reorganization of the government, but that no one had spoken to him on that topic.
"I haven't communicated with anyone so far, but I hear that the government officials have mutual problems," he said.
Bajraktari accused Mavrić of attempting political discredit
That the relations between GP URA and Force are not the best was clearly seen in Bajraktari's comment on the announcement by the president of the local parliament, Mavrić, that he would launch a parliamentary investigation regarding the delay and sloppy implementation of an important waste water drainage project for four Ulcinj settlements. Bajraktari replied to him at the end of February that it was "an attempt at political discredit".
"Although it is a project of the previous government and there is absolutely no fault of ours, it looks more like a deliberate attempt at political discredit than a concern for the implementation of an important infrastructure project through the institute of parliamentary investigation. I have absolutely nothing against a parliamentary investigation into any project, but my personal dignity and that of my colleagues are not for political games, which they can continue within their party," said Bajraktari.
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