Montenegro Gets New Church-Backed Government
Image Credits: Open Government Partnership
Podgorica, Montenegro, Dec 4 (AFP/APP): Montenegro’s parliament on Friday voted in a new government led by a university professor who is backed by the Serbian Orthodox Church, in the first transfer of power in three decades.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic takes over three months after an election won by a Church-backed coalition. The Church support was key in defeating President Milo Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which had never before lost a vote. A total of 41 MPs of those present in the 81-seat assembly voted for the new government. Twenty-eight deputies voted against and one abstained. The bulk of Krivokapic’s cabinet are young, well-educated experts, not politicians, a compromise intended to bridge ideological divides within the new parliamentary majority.
Krivokapic, a 62-year-old political newcomer, promised deputies on Wednesday “significant progress” in Montenegro’s talks to join the European Union. The country has been a NATO member since 2017. Krivokapic stressed that his team takes over as the tiny Balkans nation faces a “major crisis” with public finances badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic that he labelled “out of control”.
With more than 500 deaths from the virus, the country of 620,000 people has one of the highest per-capita death rates in Europe. Montenegro’s economy will shrink more than 12 percent this year, according to the World Bank. “I want to meet expectations of those who voted for changes,” Krivokapic said. Djukanovic’s DPS, that won most of the seats in the August vote — 30 — did not manage to form a majority.
“The most important now is that the government starts functioning and shows which are its real capacities,” Djukanovic said. The opposition said the government “glorifies theocracy” and that Montenegro is entering a period of a “serious political instability”.
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