CETINJE – New Government of Montenegro was elected today by 45 out of 81 MPs. It is a minority government headed by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, leader of the URA movement, and supported by the Democratic Party of Socialists.
Other parties participating in the government are the Socialist People’s Party (SNP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), and minority Bosniak Party and Albanian Coalition.
Previously, Danijela Đurović from SNP was elected as the new Speaker of Parliament.
The vote concluded the process of the removal from the power of the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić, which lost the confidence vote in early February.
The term of the new Government, as announced, will be one year, and the early parliamentary election might be held in the spring of 2023, together with the regular presidential election. Some commentators believe, however, that this term limit might not be respected.
The Government has four Deputy Prime Ministers – Minister for European Affairs Jovana Marović (URA), Minister of Agriculture Vladimir Joković (SNP), Minister of Defence Raško Konjević (SDP) and Minister of Capital Investments Ervin Ibrahimović (BS).
The new Minister of Foreign Affairs is Ranko Krivokapić, former leader of the Social Democratic Party, the new Minister of Interior is Filip Adžić (URA), while the new Minister of Justice is Marko Kovač, nominated by SNP.
The new Prime Minister presented the priorities of the Government, among which is the agreement on the election of the highest-level members of the judiciary, including the Supreme State Prosecutor and members of the Judicial Council.
The programme also stresses that one of the goals is the adoption of the recommendations of OSCE/ODIHR in the area of elections, as well as the reform of the security services and amendments to the Law on the National Security Agency.
Among the political priorities of the new Government will be “the uncompromised continuation of the fight against corruption and orgaised crime on all levels, the fulfillment of interim benchmarks, with the goal of receiving the closing benchmarks for Chapters 23 and 24”, the programme reads.
The renewal and the adaptation of the EU negotiating structure to the new methodology of EU accession and “appraisal of the regional initiatives in the context of the key goal – faster EU membership of Montenegro” are also parts of the programme.