Montenegro presents itself as a pro-Western minority government

Montenegro is getting a new minority government that will be led by 36-year-old Dritan Abazovic. 45 of 48 MPs voted to form the pro-Western government on Thursday evening, while 36 MPs stayed away from the vote.

The colorful coalition of Greens, Social Democrats, ethnic Albanian and Bosnian parties and a pro-Serbian party is dependent on the toleration of President Milo Djukanovic’s DPS party.

Big Challenges

“The rule of law and economic development will be the two central pillars of the new government,” said Abazovic in his program statement before the vote. His cabinet will take action against corruption, “unblock the institutions” and advance negotiations on EU accession.

The previous government, which consisted primarily of pro-Serbian and pro-Russian parties, collapsed after a year and a half as a result of internal disputes. As a result, the reforms demanded by Brussels for accession were delayed.

The session of the parliament had been moved to the historical capital Cetinje. The deputies of the other pro-Serb parties boycotted them. They considered the circumstances of their draft to be unlawful.

Marko Pejovic, an analyst at the Cedem think tank in Podgorica, does not predict that the new coalition will last long. “If a government is dependent on the support of 30 MPs out of 46 and these 30 MPs are part of a party that is not part of the government itself and against which Abazovic has been conducting politics for many years, then you can imagine how stable this party is government will be,” he told the euronews.rs portal.

It is very likely that the new government will mainly serve to prepare for early parliamentary elections at the same time as the 2023 presidential election. According to a recent poll, only 14 percent of Montenegrins support a minority government, and 51 percent are in favor of early elections.

djo/sti (afp, dpa)