Montenegro’s Abazovic and minority parties agree on cooperation agreement

Leaders of the Civic Movement (GP) URA (United Reform Action), the Citizens’ Union Civis, the Socialist People’s Party (SNP) and parties of Albanian and Bosniak minorities have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation, aimed at reconciliation in Montenegro and economic development.

URA and Civis are governing coalition members, while the minority parties are in the opposition.

“This is not a memorandum on the creation of a minority government”, Dritan Abazović, Deputy Prime Minister and URA President, said, adding that “no one here would mind cooperating in a government in the future”.

Political scientists in Montenegro are almost unanimous in the conclusion that the expected cooperation of these parties in forming a minority government will be supported by the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP). This is considered to be a possible path to early parliamentary elections aiming to eject pro-Serbian forces from the executive branch and limit the power of Milo Đukanović, President of DPS and Montenegro.

Dritan Abazović, an initiator of the agreement, comes from an Albanian family from Ulcinj, a city on the Adriatic coast and had consistently campaigned for multiculturalism.

(Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)