The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) will agree to snap elections in 2018, under pressure from the international community, Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Ranko Krivokapic told Dan.
According to Krivokapic, Prime Minister Dusko Markovic internationalised Montenegrin political crisis with his call to OSCE to mediate in the dialogue between the government and the opposition.
“The DPS leadership is obviously wandering aimlessly trying to avoid being held accountable before the people for being the key cause for the deep political crisis.
This time it is particularly noticeable, because almost at a daily basis we hear various messages from the top of this party on resolving the crisis. The claim of EU officials that there are no indisputable, ie regular, elections without the adoption of the OSCE recommendations put DPS in check. Therefore it had to make a move in order to avoid the check-mate,” Krivokapic said.
He added that “Markovic’s invitation to the OSCE to actually mediate between the government and the opposition is recognition not only that there is a crisis, but also a confirmation of our allegations that the state institutions are not functioning, particularly the puppet parliament”.
“Markovic has internationalised the crisis by the invitation to the OSCE and DPS used to claim that there is no crises until recently. Less than two years ago, they were also claiming that there would be no parliamentary dialogue or a transitional government, only to end up accepting it and even praising it as an achievement. There is no doubt about SDP that everything is going towards organising snap elections in 2018, as a democratic way of resolving the crisis. DPS will have, as always, to agree to this inevitable epilogue under external and internal pressure. Long ago SDP defined them as ‘good listeners and servants and the worst masters of Montenegro’,” the SDP leader pointed out.
He thinks that the civic opposition has the opportunity to become the centre of the gathering of the progressive forces of Montenegro.
“The slow, but now seemingly successful reconstitution of the civic opposition is a key but insufficient condition. All progressive parts of the society should be part of the action to seal the end of this autocratic plundering system,” Krivokapic added.
According to him, DPS is well aware of “the gathering power of the civic opposition”. As he said, formal and informal clientelistic circles “see the civic opposition as the main threat to the DPS autocracy”.
“For the first time since 1990, the opposition pro-Western alternative has been on the scene. Its strength and rating, according to all surveys, is higher than the DPS rating. The trends show this difference is growing. This alternative is internationally respected and acceptable, which makes its strength even greater. And that’s why I am not surprised that autocracy has focused its entire media, institutional and state apparatus, as well as its grey areas, against the civic opposition,” SDP leader said.
According to him, the visit of US Vice President Mike Pence was a symbolic milestone in the public manifestation of the inevitable changes brought by the new Euro-Atlantic position of Montenegro.
As Krivokapic said, clear messages were sent both to the civic opposition he met and the autocrat he did not meet.
