In the parliamentary elections in Montenegro, the coalition "for European Montenegro" won the victory

The program is maintained by Andrei Sharogradsky. The Radio Liberty correspondent in Belgrade Aiya Kuga takes part.

Andrei Sharogradsky: According to preliminary data, the coalition “For European Montenegro” under the leadership of the current Prime Minister Milo Dzhukanovich won the early parliamentary elections in Montenegro.

Aya Kuga: The coalition "For European Montenegro" for the next four years can count on undivided power in the country. In the elections, she provided herself 49 out of 81 places in parliament. 16 political parties and coalitions took part in the elections. According to unofficial data, only four opposition parties passed the parliament. There will be four Albanian deputies in the Chernogorskskoye buying out, who receive mandates according to a lightweight system. Characterizes the diverse of the votes of supporters of the opposition in Montenegro. As a result, most opposition parties did not overcome the three percent barrier. The Montenegrin opposition is fragmented and is not capable of uniting around a common goal. Many analysts believe that this provides the leader of Montenegro Milia Dzhukanovich stable power, which has been going on for almost 20 years.

Prime Minister Dzhukanovich said that the victory of his party in the parliamentary elections is more convincing than all previous ones.

Milo Dzhukanovich: I interpret such a result of elections as the trust of most of our voters that the country with the Coalition of the “European Montenegro” will overcome the challenges that we put the global economic crisis before us.

Ayya Kuga: Previously, Milo Dzhukanovich advocated the holding of early elections under the pretext that the ruling coalition needs a stable mandate to accelerate the processes of joining NATO and the European Union. The opposition claims that Dzhukanovich appointed elections ahead of schedule in order to strengthen his power before the global economic crisis will greatly affect Montenegro.

How to explain the convincing victory of the ruling in Montenegro Blok, which is always identified with his leader Milo Dzhukanovich? Here is the opinion of the journalist of the South Slavic editorial office of our radio from Podgorica Slavitsa Braiovich.

Slavitsa Braiovich: Dzhukanovich’s victory was expected. His party has been in parliament for many years. Suddenly, only the fact that this time he received six more deputy mandates in parliament. I believe that it may not be a question of the fact that Dzhukanovich is so successful, but that the opposition is weak. It seems to me that the result of these elections determined the opposition approach. She painted a catastrophic scenario if in a situation where the world economic crisis knocks on the door, the Democratic Party of Socialists will win in Montenegro. The opposition was intimidated by people, the voter reaction is natural: when fear is pumped on you, you hold on to the status of a quo, hold on to what you know. And after all, everyone in Montenegro is familiar, as Mil Dzhukanovich rules. It was not known as it were with the new authorities. People were not ready for changes. On the other hand, the coalition of Dzhukanovich inspired them more, but not real optimism, and everyone, feeling fear, wants to have at least false hope.

Aya Kuga: The official results of the elections in Montenegro are expected by the end of the week.

Andrei Sharogradsky: I asked the results of early parliamentary elections in Montenegro to comment on a specialist in the Balkan countries, senior researcher at the Institute of International Economic and Political Research of the Academy of Sciences of Russia Sergey Romanenko.

Sergey, how unexpected is the victory of the ruling party of Montenegro in the current elections?

Sergey Romanenko: Firstly, this is not only the party, but the coalition, it included four parties and, in addition to the party of Prime Minister Milo Dzhukanovich, it is also the Social Democratic Party, and also, I want to note this especially, one Croatian and one Bosni-Muslim party. The victory, in fact, did not cause much surprise to this coalition, because it was known before, and the elections confirmed this, Milo Dzhukanovich still remains the main political figure of Montenegro.

Andrei Sharogradsky: And yet we are talking about the power of the ruling coalition or the weakness of the opposition?

Sergey Romanenko: There are several points. I would also like to add that opposition parties of various kinds, in particular, the socialist people's party, got about 17 votes, then one of the Serbian parties, which received 6 percent of the vote. To this I would like to add that the liberal coalition, in general, was outside the walls of the parliament. That party that could somehow be considered liberal, doubled the number of deputy places. Indeed, this indicates that largely the coalition, firstly, is fragmented both according to national and political principles. On the other hand, in Montenegro, in general, such clan democracy is still preserved and the personality of Maly Dzhukanovich is the main factor for the victory of the Socialist Democratic Party he headed by him.

Andrey Sharogradsky: What explains such his popularity? This pro-European course or some success in the economy?

Sergey Romanenko: No, you know, it’s hard to talk about successes. Even more than that, I think that there is a share of truth in this. The opposition claims that these extraordinary elections were held right now. If they were carried out later, as planned, the impact of the global economic crisis would affect their result. In addition, of course, the fact that Montenegro still remains an not-not-developed country is also played by the role and, of course, it has to do a lot to reinforce her aspirations, to join, first of all, of course, into the European Union. Because in NATO she, of course, strives to enter, but still the criterion for joining NATO is more easily fulfilled than the socio-economic and legal requirements that the European Union puts forward.

Andrey Sharogradsky: In general, in your opinion, what prospects can we expect that Montenegro will still become a member of the European Union, especially considering the current situation within the Union?

Sergey Romanenko: Yes, I just wanted to say that it is not yet known what the fate of the European Union will be. But I think that Montenegro, as well as, for example, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and Macedonia have to go a very large internal path of reform in order to somehow meet those high requirements. Because membership in the European Union cannot be some kind of automatic, after all, it is a union of states and the Union of Societies that have passed a certain path and meet certain criteria. Therefore, you see, on the one hand, of course, the European Union needs that the states of the Stuyugoslav region are in its composition for both political and economic reasons. But, on the other hand, it is quite obvious and just here an example can be a few hasty reception of Romania and Bulgaria shows that a reception for political reasons causes very great difficulties in relations between the Balkan states of not only old Europe, but even new members of the European Union, such as Poland, Hungary and so on.