(1/5)Members of the 44th Montenegrin government pose for a family photo in front of the Parliament in Podgorica, Montenegro October 31, 2023. REUTERS/Stevo Vasiljevic Acquire license rights
PODGORICA, Oct 31 (Reuters) – After weeks of negotiations, Montenegro’s parliament on Tuesday named a new government, a coalition of pro-European and pro-Serb parties that is expected to lead the small Balkan country in its bid for membership to the European Union.
The new government, led by economist Milojko Spajic of the Europe Now movement, will have 19 ministries and five deputy prime ministers. It will include the center-right pro-European Democrats, the pro-Serb Socialist People’s Party and five Albanian minority parties.
“Our four main foreign policy priorities are full membership (…) of the EU, active and credible membership of NATO, improving good relations with neighbors and strengthening the country’s role in multilateral organizations,” Spajic told parliamentarians.
He said economic policies would aim to improve the living standards of Montenegro’s population, which numbers just 620,000, and would include reforms allowing for more tax revenue, investment, a better business climate and a better justice system. .
After an all-night debate, 46 MPs out of the 81 seats in Parliament supported the government.
The pro-Serbian and pro-Russian alliance For a Better Montenegro, led by Andrija Mandic, agreed to vote for the Spajic cabinet in exchange for the post of speaker of parliament and four ministerial posts after a government reshuffle tentatively planned for the next year.
During its first session on Tuesday, the new government postponed for 30 days a population and household census scheduled for November 1 due to technical problems and a planned boycott by opposition parties, which expressed their fears that the census is not transparent.
Spajic said software will be installed allowing all citizens to check their individual data recorded in the system and that opposition members will for the first time be included in the census commissions, which oversee the census.
“We will try to talk to all parties to unblock the mechanism,” Spajic told reporters after the session. “I don’t want the boycott to happen.”
The economy of Montenegro, which unilaterally adopted the euro in 2002 as its de facto currency and which relies mainly on revenue from tourism in the Adriatic, is expected to grow by 4.8% in 2023, according to the World Bank.
Montenegro joined NATO in 2017, a year after a failed coup attempt that the government at the time blamed on Russian agents and Serbian nationalists.
Russia has dismissed the accusation as “absurd” and the government of neighboring Serbia has denied any involvement.
After Russia invaded Ukraine last year, Montenegro, unlike Serbia, joined EU sanctions against Moscow, sent aid to Ukraine and expelled a certain number of Russian diplomats. The Kremlin has placed Montenegro on its list of hostile states.
Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic, additional reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Robert Birsel and Susan Fenton
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