Good morning! Almost two months have passed since the elections in Budva. An agreement on the parliamentary majority is not in sight, but the new local partnerships are very interesting. What are they telling us?
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Budva knot
While the situation at the state level has stabilized, Budva fails to reach an agreement on power. The gap between the halves of the bisected DF is too deep for anyone to repair it. It seems that both halves of the former undisputed DF are more ready to cooperate with DPS than with each other. Even Vucic’s promise of a “solution” did not resolve the situation. He seems to be preoccupied with his own problems. The Jadar lithium project has been causing problems to the Belgrade rulers since the First Serbian Uprising. The ghost of Djordje Curcija does not allow lithium to be mined.
But let us return to our topics from the south of the Serbian World. While roses bloom at the state level and all ethnic entrepreneurs except Montenegrins settle, there is no agreement in the ethnically and religiously homogenous Budva. Jovanovic, the proxy of the imprisoned Milo Bozovic, proved to be a skillful negotiator. He negotiated with SDP, URA and the Democrats and offered power to PES led by Predrag Zenovic, who was also close to DF.
It is interesting that DF and their boss from Belgrade butchered PES before the elections in Budva with the trickery regarding Srebrenica. And PES has now forgiven them for beating them.
I wrote earlier that Zenovic would be the bridge of cooperation between PES and DF, and if PES had not failed, it would be certain that a pro-government coalition would be formed in Budva. But it seems that a new unknown has appeared. Another Zenovic, who openly criticizes the government in which his party participates, recently even called it the worst government in history. The same Zenovic leads the Democrats in Budva, and it seems that he is not in the mood for cooperation with DF.
Now PES and DF have offered them the local parliament speaker in the hope of gathering a purely Serbian coalition in Budva. However, they would lack some councilors. DPS is patiently waiting. The leader of their list, Professor Milovic, recently denied that he had met with Jovanovic. There were rumors around the town that the coalition was agreed upon, but it’s obvious that, if there was anything in sight, it got complicated.
SDP is led by Odzic, who has grown into an autonomous political figure, but it seems as if he does not represent his coalition partners from SD and LP, who are very weak in Budva. URA’s Blazo Radjenovic was very close to DF, but it seems that the estrangement between URA and DF at the state level spilled over to the local level.
The fact is that without DPS there is no government in Budva. It is also a fact that it will be difficult to find a model that does not include their support. Their support, even a minority one, would automatically exclude the Democrats from negotiations with Jovanovic.
The bottom line is that there are options to make a majority, but Budva currently looks like facing the elections. Until then, Budva will be ruled by Jovanovic, and without his list, it will be difficult to form a government.
Whether PES will go to the elections where they will try to improve the results in the elections, remains to be seen. In order to improve the election result, it must build a committee in Budva and find or create leaders. And that is a long and bloody job.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst and columnist
(The opinions and views of the columnist are not necessarily those of the CdM editorial staff)
