Answering Dan’s questions, EU delegation in Montenegro said it expected the government and the opposition to start a dialogue to overcome the current political situation.
“As the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and the European Commission’s European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn said, boycotting Parliament isn’t a sustainable solution,” the delegation headed by Aivo Orav stated.
The parliament boycott has lasted since the last general elections. According to opposition representatives, it will not be stopped any time soon.
As a reminder, the period after the elections was marked by turbulent events in the legal and political life of Montenegro. There were political protests and tensions over the lifting opposition MPs’ immunity, followed by contradictory decisions by the competent prosecutor’s offices related to remanding the deputies in prison. These events raised many questions about political and legal consequences. They particularly showed that the Montenegrin institutions are not ready to deal with such events in the right way. According to many estimates, the political crisis in Montenegro is the deepest one since independence restoration.
Last year, representatives of opposition parliamentary groups unanimously decided not to recognise the results of parliamentary elections because they were allegedly held in non-democratic conditions. They explained this by saying that the day of the state coup, as the State Prosecutor’s Office characterised the events, cannot be the day of free elections.
