Justice on hold: Still no dialogue on the choice of leaders

From the judiciary, which for years received assessments that it was under the influence of the authorities and that it was rather out of date, we have reached the state of the VD and a situation in which it is practically blocked. Both the government and the opposition and the civil sector are aware of this.

"This hinders the functioning of the rule of law and this makes European integration difficult and slow down. That problem was inherited," said Democrat MP Momo Koprivica.

"We cannot implement that process because of a wider consensus. The current ruling majority with 41 MPs cannot end this process and somewhere they must realize that we have to sit down and find a common solution", points out DPS MP Suzana Pribilović.

"We have one, in my opinion, exceptional hypocrisy of political actors, because while in that one discourse of theirs with words, we hear that they are advocating for these values ​​in practice, we know that they have not taken a single step to try to meet to discuss this and I don't know why we lost a year without trying to open up this issue", said the program director of the Center for Democratic Transition (CDT), Milica Kovačević.

For the election of the Judicial Council, judges of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme State Prosecutor, the support of at least three-fifths of the deputies is necessary. At the same time, due to the mutual conflicts of the three-member ruling coalition - there is not even a simple majority for the election of the Prosecutor's Council. Everyone agrees that dialogue is the only solution, but they cannot sit down at the table.

"What makes that process difficult is the constant production of ideological tensions, fragmented election processes, and that suits those criminal structures to maintain the status quo," says Koprivica.

"We have to show on both sides the willingness to solve this situation and find the best solution that will really take Montenegro on the road to the EU, and not just say declaratively that we want it, but not a single step forward," adds Pribilović.

"What we see with political actors, instead of absolutely advocating that the supreme interest of citizens be respected, we see blocking, obstruction, political decisions, political blackmail, which definitely do not bring us closer to what would be an agreement," Kovačević points out.

The president of the Judicial Council, who is in a state of emergency for the second time, does not think that we are threatened with the collapse of the judicial system, but she believes that it is ripe for alarm.

"We constantly hear criticism that we are illegitimate. I am not illegitimate because I want to be. Rather, I am illegitimate because those who should give legitimacy to the new members of the judicial council did not do so. A situation that is devastating for us as a community and that speaks sadly about it, shows where we are at the moment," said Vesna Simović Zvicer.

From the civil sector, they point to the fact that in the whole story we are talking about some 10 or 15 positions on which consensus should be reached, and add that if we do not have so many honorable and professional people in the country, on which an agreement can be reached, then we are in a big problem.

"I think that the problem lies precisely in the political parties that do not put these criteria, a professional, professional engagement, and, ultimately, honesty, in the first place, but in the first place is actually party desirability or party affiliation, which continues this practice with which we want to fight, and that is the government's need to keep the judiciary under political control", says Kovačević.

The CDT concludes that we will have real progress in the fight against corruption, only when the best people are elected to those positions, for a full term, with great support in the parliament and full legitimacy.