The parliamentary elections held in Montenegro on 30 August 2020 led to the first change of government though the mechanism of democratic elections for the first time since the country’s first multi-party elections in 1990, when Montenegro was still a republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY). Since then, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) have dominated Montenegrin politics and have governed, often in coalition with minority parties, for three decades. The current president, Milo Djukanović, has held the role of either prime minister or president almost constantly throughout.
The DPS’s hold on power seemed unassailable. But the conflict between the DPS-led government and the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro - over the controversial ‘Law on Religious Freedoms’ - and a number of political and financial scandals had already weakened the DPS, even before the COVID-19 crisis had real impact, combined to produce an election result that was unexpected.
The new government comprises three coalitions – ‘For the Future of Montenegro’, led by Zdravko Krivokapić; ‘Peace is our nation’, led by Aleksa Bečić (who last week became the new President of the Montenegrin Parliament); and ‘Black on White’, led by Dritan Abazović. Their shared antipathy for the DPS was a unifying factor for the opposition bloc prior to the election, but they are now tasked with governing while dealing with numerous crises.
The new government will have a very narrow parliamentary majority and, while they have declared a commitment to maintaining Montenegro’s Euro-Atlantic path, there are significant differences within the parties that comprise that new government, some of which have previously expressed hostility to Montenegro’s NATO membership. The country also faces a significant economic crisis fueled primarily, though not exclusively, by the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Montenegro’s tourist industry. They will also face a well-organized opposition who will seek to capitalize on any missteps.
Dritan Abazović, the leader of United Reform Action (URA), the leading party within the ‘Black on White’ coalition, has been a key player in the negotiations to form a new government. Born in December 1985 in Ulcinj, he was educated at the University of Sarajevo, the University of Montenegro and at the University of Oslo. In this interview for LSEE, he discussed the factors that led to the election result, the challenges for the new government and his vision for a more democratic Montenegro.
He was in conversation with Kenneth Morrison, a Professor of Modern Southeast European History at De Montfort University, a former Visiting Professor at LSEE and the author of Nationalism, Statehood and Identity in Post-Yugoslav Montenegro (Bloomsbury, 2018).
Watch the interview
