Divided They Stand

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Wednesday, May 29, 2002Montenegro's parliament has withdrawn its support of Prime Minister Filip Vujanovic's cabinet in a 40 to 29 no-confidence vote. President Milo Djukanovic now has 60 days to name a new prime minister-designate, who would try to form a cabinet with sufficient support in parliament. If that fails, early parliamentary elections would have to be called within three months.

Vujanovic's government ran into trouble when, in late March, two pro-independence parties withdrew their support following Djukanovic's and Vujanovic's acceptance of an E.U.-brokered deal on a new union with Serbia for the next three years. "You promised a referendum for independence to Montenegrin citizens and that's what they voted for when they voted for you," Liberal Alliance of Montenegro (LSCG) leader Miodrag Zivkovic told Vujanovic at the parliamentary session. "You betrayed them and now you are offering them something else. That's the reason for your resignation and for us to withdraw support from the government."

But Vujanovic, who is staying on as caretaker prime minister after the May 22 vote, defended the agreement with Serbia. "I never saw the deal with Serbia as a betrayal of Montenegro's interests. It will provide for better ties with Belgrade and the international community, and at the same time it will secure international recognition of Montenegro's independence in three years if citizens decide so," Vujanovic said.

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The E.U. deal envisages common defense and foreign policies but separate economies, currencies, and customs services for Serbia and Montenegro. After three years, both Serbia and Montenegro could hold referendums on full independence.

Djukanovic invited the leaders of all parliamentary parties for consultations on forming a new government on 27 May. Last week, Djukanovic told Serbian state television that he expected to reach a deal with the pro-independence LSCG and ex-coalition partner the Social Democratic Party (SDP). Djukanovic stressed that early parliamentary elections would harm reform processes in Montenegro and be contrary to the international community's policies toward Montenegro.

But Djukanovic acknowledged that representatives from the international community had suggested to him that his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) could find a coalition partner within the pro-Belgrade opposition coalition Together for Yugoslavia. The president stressed, however, that it is more likely that the result of the upcoming talks will be a new pro-independence government, made up of the DPS, the LSCG, and the SDP. Those parties will probably also form new local governments in some municipalities following their success in the 15 May local elections.

LSCG leader Zivkovic said his party was ready to consider a "serious offer" from Djukanovic. At a meeting with E.U. envoys Stefan Lene and Tomas Eckhart, Zivkovic announced that the Liberals would agree to participate in the government "only if the implementation of urgent reforms in Montenegro is enabled and if we can take over the responsibility for executive authority for those reforms."

But Zivkovic warned that "the personal ambitions of Milo Djukanovic could be a possible obstacle to the formation of the new government," saying, "He will probably try to tie his success in presidential elections with early parliamentary elections, organizing them at the same time so he could use all the advantages of unlimited powers." The leader of the SDP, Ranko Krivokapic, said he hoped that the new government would "gather democratic and reform-oriented parties to lead the full renewal of the country's statehood."

Opposition leader Predrag Bulatovic refused to meet Djukanovic. In his response to the president's invitation, Bulatovic wrote that his Socialist People's Party (SNP), the backbone of the Together for Yugoslavia coalition, "sees early parliamentary elections as the only way of overcoming the deep crisis in Montenegro."

The People's Party (NS), which was Djukanovic's coalition partner from 1998 to 2000, announced it would argue to Djukanovic that a grand coalition government, involving all parliamentary parties, would be the best way out of the crisis. "The concentration government would prepare a democratic atmosphere for early parliamentary elections," People's Party spokesman Bojan Vuksanovic said. It is expected that Djukanovic will nominate a DPS member as a prime minister-designate.

Meanwhile, E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who mediated the March agreement between Belgrade and Podgorica, has expressed dissatisfaction with the timeline of implementation of the agreement and stated that he hopes to "close this issue by the end of summer."

This article was edited and adapted from Transitions Online www.tol.cz