Montenegro finally has a new government and a new prime minister – POLITICO

Montenegro’s Parliament voted for a new government on Tuesday, after weeks of negotiations and almost five months after the country’s elections.

The small Balkan country will be directed by a coalition of pro-European, pro-Serbian and Albanian minority parties, led by former finance minister and former Goldman Sachs banker Milojko Spajić, who leads the centrist Europe Now movement. At 36, he is the youngest Prime Minister in Europe.

“Our vision is Montenegro, the Switzerland of the Balkans and the Singapore of Europe,” Spajić said Parliament before the vote.

He presented his government’s main foreign policy priorities as joining the EU, maintaining NATO membership, improving Montenegro’s relations with its neighbors and participating in multilateral organizations.

The country declared independence from Serbia in 2006, began negotiations to join the EU in 2012, and joined NATO in 2017. It adopted the euro as its currency in 2002.

In recent years, the country has been shaken by large-scale anti-government and religious freedom demonstrations. In April, Milo Đukanović, the country’s leader for nearly three decades, was defeated in a decisive presidential election.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to meet with Spajić and President Jakov Milatović on Tuesday as part of a four-day tour of the Western Balkans.

Speaking in North Macedonia on Monday, von der Leyen announcement a 6 billion euro investment program for countries in the region seeking to join the EU, conditional on reforms.