Vote on Montenegrin Speaker’s Removal Over Mladic Condolences Blocked

Vote on Montenegrin Speaker’s Removal Over Mladic Condolences Blocked Montenegrin Parliament Speaker, Andrija Mandic. Photo: EPA-EFE/CATI CLADERA. Montenegro’s parliament on Thursday did not debate a motion to dismiss Andrija Mandic of the right-wing New Serbian Democracy party as parliamentary speaker as previously planned, because there was no quorum to hold the session. The trigger for the planned vote was the message of condolence that Mandic sent to the son of former Bosnian Serb military commander and genocide convict Ratko Mladic after his recent death. The opposition Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS responded to the blocked vote by saying that it will submit the motion to dismiss Mandic again at the next plenary session. The DPS also said that until a session is held at which lawmakers are allowed to vote on the dismissal of Mandic, it will not cooperate with the government or the parliamentary majority. “We will not participate in a simulation of democracy … From today, this government is holding Montenegro’s political stability hostage,” DPS leader Danijel Zivkovic told a news conference in parliament. “[Mandic] did not even allow a quorum to be established, so that it could be determined who was in the chamber, if anyone … And then there is the treatment of media representatives, who were not allowed to enter the chamber,” Zivkovic said. There was already a heated atmosphere in parliament because Mandic did not allow the extraordinary session to be broadcast or the media to enter the plenary hall, prompting opposition lawmakers and some members of the ruling majority to leave the chamber. Boris Mugosa, leader of the opposition European Alliance accused Mandic and the parties in the government allied to New Serbian Democracy of “brutally violating the constitution by preventing the session from being held”. The DPS announcement that it will suspend cooperation with the government and the governing majority could complicate the closing of negotiating chapters on Montenegro’s path to the EU, as this also requires a constitutional amendment that needs a two-thirds majority in parliament. The Europe Now Movement, part of the governing coalition, said it was “the democratic and constitutional right of every lawmaker to decide whether to take part in consideration of a particular agenda item”. But it added: “At the same time, we view statements by some opposition figures that they will not vote for the constitutional amendments necessary to close the negotiating chapters as an attempt to seize power before the elections by using Montenegro’s European path as leverage.” New Serbian Democracy was defiant however, painting the outcome as a victory for pro-EU, pro-Serbian politician Mandic ahead of the parliamentary elections, which must be held by June 2027. “The score on the board is 3-0: three for Andrija Mandic, for a European future, and zero for those who want divisions,” New Serbian Democracy MP Dejan Djurovic told a press conference.