Montenegro Gets New Government

Montenegro Government (Montenegro Government/BETAPHOTO/V/Rade Koprivica)

The Montenegrin parliament has elected a new, minority government headed by former deputy prime minister Dritan Abazovic, thereby ending a three-month-long crisis in the work of the executive and legislative branches of government in Montenegro.

The new government received the votes of 45 out of 81 MPs late on April 28. Abazovic is the first ethnic Albanian at the helm of the Montenegrin government. In his closing speech, Abazovic said that he believed the minority cabinet meant a huge step forward and called on all to "rally around a European Montenegro."

"We are sending a message to everyone that this country can reach an agreement. The problem in this country so far has been political blindness. I expect that after this government we will get another one through the electoral process. This is indeed a strange, unusual situation, I am aware of that. I hope that after the next elections we will get a stable government and that all the forces in parliament will be able to cooperate constructively," said Abazovic.

He also said that intensive diplomatic activities needed to be carried out in the coming months for Montenegro to accelerate its journey toward EU membership.

Besides Abazovic's URA movement, the government will comprise the parties of minority peoples, the pro-Montenegrin Social Democratic Party and the pro-Serbian Socialist People's Party, while its decisions in parliament will be supported by the biggest opposition party, Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists.

Abazovic's government will have 18 ministries and two ministers without portfolio, which is considerably more than the cabinet led by Zdravko Krivokapic, which consisted of 12 ministers. The leader of the strongest opposition party and head of state Milo Djukanovic did not attend the session even though he had granted Abazovic the mandate to form a government in early March.