A new pro-European party edged out its rivals by a short head on Sunday in early parliamentary elections in Montenegro, according to electoral projections. A result that promises difficult discussions to build a stable majority after years of political crisis. The election comes two months after the historic defeat in the presidential election of veteran local politician Milo Djukanovic, who led Montenegro for more than thirty years.
The party of the new Montenegrin President Jakov Milatovic, “Europe now! won 26% of the vote on Sunday, according to calculations by the specialized NGO Center for Democratic Transition (CDT). “Europe now!” will however be forced to build a coalition if he wants to govern the tiny Balkan country in the days and weeks to come, a task that promises to be not easy.
“We will form a pro-European government”
The co-founder and president of “Europe now! “, Milojko Spajic, 35, who is aiming for the post of Prime Minister, however said he was “satisfied” with the result achieved after “a difficult campaign”. ” Tomorrow is another day. We will not be arrogant, we will sit down with all those who share our values” and “we will form a pro-European government”, he promised.
According to CDT estimates, his party is ahead of Milo Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) by three points, which won 23% of the vote. The DPS, which had suffered a historic defeat in the 2020 legislative elections, then lost the capital, Podgorica, seems to be in a worse position than “Europe now! to attract other parties into a possible coalition. The rest of the votes are distributed between different formations, including 15% for a pro-Serb alliance. Official results are expected in a few days.
No stable majority since 2020
Since the legislative elections of 2020, the country of 620,000 inhabitants has been going from crisis to crisis. Neither side managed to find a stable majority and two governments were overthrown by motions of censure.
A member of NATO since 2017, Montenegro has been negotiating its accession to the European Union since 2010. But the paralysis of political institutions has hampered this rapprochement between the country and the EU.
Founded barely a year ago, “Europe now! promises to move Montenegro along the European path, to bridge the religious and community divides that divide the country, where a third of the inhabitants identify as Serbs. The current target of controversy, however, Milojko Spajic declared “we want to become the Singapore of Europe, the most business-friendly country in Europe. Obviously, our geopolitical objective is EU membership. This is the goal we will work hard on”.