Montenegro’s pro-West ruling party could be knocked from power for the first time in three decades after a close election gave a slight edge to opposition camps, results showed yesterday.
The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), led by Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, is still the biggest party after winning just more than a third of the vote, according to official results from Sunday’s election.
However, it was their worst performance in Montenegro’s history.
Photo: AP
If their main pro-Serb rivals join forces with two other opposition blocs, DPS could be ousted in what would be a political earthquake for the small Adriatic nation of 620,000 people.
The DPS has never lost an election, with Djukanovic leading Montenegro since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s to independence from Serbia, and more recently into NATO and toward the EU.
However, this year, the party faced a stiff challenge from an emboldened right-wing and pro-Serb camp that wants closer links with Belgrade and Moscow.
Projections by election monitor CeMI gave the three main opposition parties a lead of just one seat — 41 in the 81-member assembly.
A period of intense talks are expected to follow, with Djukanovic, in his role as president, ultimately responsible for handing down the first mandate.
While the opposition’s success is not a “done deal,” the results were a “watershed” moment for the country and “good news for democracy,” said Florian Bieber, an expert on the Balkans.
It remains to be seen if the opposition coalitions, which range from far-right Serb nationalists to a civic-minded liberal camp, can forge a working alliance.
“The range is so wide that tensions are inevitable and the question is whether a new government would be able to survive these tensions,” Bieber said, adding that any small defections could bring DPS back to power.
In addition to long-running frustrations at a government accused of corruption and clientelism, analysts attributed DPS’ weak showing to a law that sparked intense controversy with the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).
Passed late last year, the religion law opened a path for hundreds of SPC-run monasteries in Montenegro to become state property.
This ignited huge anti-government protests, led by priests and backed by the pro-Serb opposition who accuse Djukanovic of trying to erase their heritage.
While Montenegro declared independence from Serbia in 2006, a third of its population identify as Serb and the SPC remains its largest religious institution, making debates around identity highly sensitive.
Throughout the church row, Djukanovic sought to present himself as the guardian of Montenegrin nationhood, saying it was threatened by Serb nationalist forces.
Speaking at the party’s headquarters late on Sunday, Djukanovic underlined that DPS had the “strongest” finish in the poll and that the “struggle for the majority is still on”.
However, Zdravko Krivokapic, the leader of the main pro-Serb alliance, announced triumphantly that “the regime has fallen.”
Supporters celebrated on Sunday night in the streets of Podgorica, waving Serbian flags and setting off fireworks outside the largest Orthodox church in the capital.
Leaders of the other main opposition parties were also ecstatic, with Dritan Abazovic from the liberal Black on White party saying that “Mafia will no longer rule Montenegro.”
Djukanovic, who is now serving his second term as president after four stints as prime minister, will not face election until 2023.
People with missing teeth might be able to grow new ones, said Japanese dentists, who are testing a pioneering drug they hope will offer an alternative to dentures and implants. Unlike reptiles and fish, which usually replace their fangs on a regular basis, it is widely accepted that humans and most other mammals only grow two sets of teeth. However, hidden underneath our gums are the dormant buds of a third generation, said Katsu Takahashi, head of oral surgery at the Medical Research Institute Kitano Hospital in Osaka, Japan. His team launched clinical trials at Kyoto University Hospital in October, administering an experimental
IVY LEAGUE GRADUATE: Suspect Luigi Nicholas Mangione, whose grandfather was a self-made real-estate developer and philanthropist, had a life of privilege The man charged with murder in the killing of the CEO of UnitedHealthcare made it clear he was not going to make things easy on authorities, shouting unintelligibly and writhing in the grip of sheriff’s deputies as he was led into court and then objecting to being brought to New York to face trial. The displays of resistance on Tuesday were not expected to significantly delay legal proceedings for Luigi Nicholas Mangione, who was charged in last week’s Manhattan killing of Brian Thompson, the leader of the US’ largest medical insurance company. Little new information has come out about motivation,
‘MONSTROUS CRIME’: The killings were overseen by a powerful gang leader who was convinced his son’s illness was caused by voodoo practitioners, a civil organization said Nearly 200 people in Haiti were killed in brutal weekend violence reportedly orchestrated against voodoo practitioners, with the government on Monday condemning a massacre of “unbearable cruelty.” The killings in the capital, Port-au-Prince, were overseen by a powerful gang leader convinced that his son’s illness was caused by followers of the religion, the civil organization the Committee for Peace and Development (CPD) said. It was the latest act of extreme violence by powerful gangs that control most of the capital in the impoverished Caribbean country mired for decades in political instability, natural disasters and other woes. “He decided to cruelly punish all
NOTORIOUS JAIL: Even from a distance, prisoners maimed by torture, weakened by illness and emaciated by hunger, could be distinguished Armed men broke the bolts on the cell and the prisoners crept out: haggard, bewildered and scarcely believing that their years of torment in Syria’s most brutal jail were over. “What has happened?” asked one prisoner after another. “You are free, come out. It is over,” cried the voice of a man filming them on his telephone. “Bashar has gone. We have crushed him.” The dramatic liberation of Saydnaya prison came hours after rebels took the nearby capital, Damascus, having sent former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad fleeing after more than 13 years of civil war. In the video, dozens of
RSS