On the night of November 2, deputies of the Montenegrin parliament adopted amendments to the law on the president, due to which the party of the current president Milo Djukanovic and opposition parties close to it accused the parliamentary majority of committing a constitutional coup.
This was reported by the Balkan Observer.
41 deputies of the so-called "old majority" voted for the amendments proposed by the pro-Russian "Democratic Front", which includes the "Demfront", "Democrats", the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro, the URA civil movement of Drytan Abazovich, "Edina Montenegro" and "Spravzhna". . One deputy, Genci Nimanbegu from the Albanian party Forca, spoke against it.
Deputies of the Democratic Party of Socialists, whose leader Milo Djukanovic currently holds the post of president, were not present in the hall during the voting.
The approved amendments to the law limit the constitutional powers of the president.
In particular, the procedure for granting a mandate to form a government is changing. In fact, this right passes from the president to the parliamentary majority. Currently, according to the Constitution of Montenegro, the president has exclusive powers to nominate the head of the new government.
By amending the law on the president, the parliamentary majority wants, first of all, to create conditions for the nomination of Miodrag Lekic, head of the liberal-conservative Democratic Alliance, a politician loyal to Russia with experience in diplomatic activity during Yugoslavia, who did not support Montenegrin independence, to the post of head of the new government.
The amendments also make changes to the procedure for appointing and recalling ambassadors - this right is given to the government instead of the president. Currently, due to disputes between the executive power and the president, Montenegro does not have ambassadors in 18 countries.
The initial version of the amendments to the law also provided for the possibility of starting the procedure for the dismissal of the current president Djukanovych. However, this option was removed in the final version.
In September, the pro-Russian majority already proposed Lekic's candidacy for the position of head of government, but Djukanovic refused to support it due to procedural violations.
After the adoption of amendments to the law on the president, a new government headed by Lekić may be elected at the end of November or in December.
Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists and opposition parties close to it accused the parliamentary majority of committing a constitutional coup, legal violence and destroying the constitutional order of Montenegro. They called the adopted law "Lekich's law".
Dozens of citizens gathered the previous evening near the parliament to express their protest against the "constitutional coup".
The permanent political crisis in Montenegro continues since 2020, when the Democratic Party of Socialists and its allies lost their majority for the first time in the parliamentary elections.