(Un)founded optimism in the ruling majority: They will elect Constitutional Court judges tomorrow or in a month

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is visiting Montenegro, and her visit coincided with a parliamentary session where a vote is scheduled to be held on the election of two candidates for judges of the Constitutional Court.

Brussels is continuously seeking its completion by electing the missing judges, which will require support from part of the opposition, which has so far shown no signs of providing it.

There is optimism in the Europe Now Movement (PES) that the entire process of selecting judges could be completed either tomorrow or in a month.

"If there is not a sufficient majority to elect them tomorrow, I am confident that we will vote them out in the next vote in 30 days, with a three-fifths majority. But I recognize in the deputies that they are aware of its importance, that they have the will to resolve this issue because no one wants to block the Constitutional Court," said the head of the PES parliamentary group, Vasilije Čarapić.

The Speaker of the Parliament also expects that the judges will be voted in, as TV Nikšić reported, in the first or second round and announced talks on this with the parliamentary groups for tonight.

"I will do my best to encourage all of them in discussions with parliamentary groups to reach the required number of 54. I do not think that this majority does not exist. I am sure that the election will take place, the only question is whether it will be tomorrow or in a month," said the President of the Parliament of Montenegro, Andrija Mandić.

Incidentally, the situation regarding support for the election of US judges became more complicated after the Bosniak Party told its colleagues in the government that they would not be able to count on them:

"We will not support any candidate because there was a candidate from the Bosniak people who met the best conditions. Unlike that candidate, a candidate has been proposed who has not passed the bar exam," said Bosniak Party MP Jasmin Ćorović.

The Social Democrats also cite this argument, even though the bar exam is not a requirement for election to the position of judge of the Constitutional Court by law. They also say that they will not vote for the proposed judges.

"I think that most of the opposition, which is truly the opposition, thinks that way, and we will see whether there will be any jumping or jumping from one side to the other in the period ahead," said Social Democrats (SD) MP Nikola Zirojević.

The ruling party is secretly counting on the support of three independent MPs, one from DUA and four from the opposition URA, whose Main Committee is expected to decide tonight whether their MPs will vote for the election of two judges, or at least one, as has been speculated in the media in recent days.

However, as things stand now, the arrival of the President of the European Commission is unlikely to be a motivating factor for MPs to vote for two constitutional judges in the first round tomorrow.

It is more certain that narrow party interests and calculations will prevail again and that a second round of voting will be required for the eventual election of new judges.

But even then, their choice will depend on the support of parties that are not part of the government.