SNP Officials Put Out Feelers to Montenegrin Front

Three officials of Montenegro’s biggest opposition party met Democratic Front leaders to again explore the possibility of a united action against the government.Three officials of the opposition Socialist People’s Party, SNP, Milan Knezevic, Vera Bulatovic, and Vladislav Bojovic, met Miodrag Lekic, chair of the Democratic Front, on Wednesday to discuss forming a unified force against the government.The Democratic Front earlier turned down an SNP offer to form a pre-electoral coalition, complaining that the SNP wanted to discuss distribution of parliamentary mandates even before the Front had obtained its final shape.

The SNP had also proposed forming an election coalition with the Front, which the Front said was unacceptable, as the Front itself is a coalition.

Wednesday’s fresh talks, which were not attended by the SNP leader, Srdjan Milic, came about unexpectedly.

After the meeting, Milan Knezevic said his aim was not to break up his party, but to further explore the possibility of deals and negotiations between Democratic Front and the SNP.

During the meeting, the SNP officials presented a proposal, which suggested that their party might actually join the Front instead of signing a coalition agreement with it.

Knezevic, Bulatovic and Bojovic, in a joint statement, expressed the belief that this proposal might be acceptable to most of the party’s members.

However, other SNP senior officials said they were not familiarized with the proposal that the party should join the Front, and urged its initiators to submit the document to the party’s main board.

While the SNP officials were giving conflicting statements, the leader of the Front, Miodrag Lekic, sounded less excited about the meeting, describing it as “nothing spectacular”.

“If the SNP wants to join the Front… it is welcome. If not, each goes his own way,” he said.

The Democratic Front was formed in July with the aim of ousting the government led by the Democratic Party of Socialists in elections scheduled for October 14.

Two other opposition parties, New Serbian Democracy, NOVA, and the Movement for Changes, PzP, have participated in the Democratic Front since its formation.