Montenegro Ruling Party Agrees Minority Demands

After the Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, said it agreed to the terms set by the ethnic minority parties, a new government is expected to be formed soon.Montenegro’s ruling party has settled terms with the country’s ethnic minority parties, paving the way to the formation of a majority government.

The DPS-led coalition, “European Montenegro”, won 39 of the 81 seats in parliament in the general election on October 14 – two short of an absolute majority.

It has since been seeking support from the three electoral lists of Montenegro’s ethnic minorities, the Croatian Civic Initiative, HGI, the Bosniak Party, BS, and FORCA, a coalition of Albanian parties.

The three political formations signed a platform for talks with European Montenegro on Tuesday, which, among other things, sought greater decentralization and proportional representation of ethnic minorities in public administration.

Late on Thursday the DPS pronounced the platform acceptable, potentially allowing for the rapid installation of a new DPS-led government.

“The conditions for creating a new government are thus formed, which will again be led and predominantly composed of the DPS,” the DPS announced.

The DPS said that the priorities of the new government would be furthering NATO and European integration and achieving overall economic and social progress.

The inaugural session of Montenegro’s new parliament is scheduled for November 6.

The name of the new Prime Minister is also expected to be known this week.

This follows speculation that country’s longterm leader, Milo Djukanovic, currently head of the DPS, might return to public office.