Good morning! The SNP made a decision; the URA announced as many as 20 ministries to satisfy everyone’s appetites; Begovic cut the budget for handball players; the action in the Medenica case continued; Russia reacted to the “accidental” severance of diplomatic relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
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The government with 20 ministers
The SNP made a final decision. After a long wait, more than two-thirds of the executive committee decided the SDP was reformed enough to run for government. Milos Konatar reacted immediately, announcing that the government would consist of twenty ministers and that it would have four deputy prime ministers. It is like in the case of Herceg Novi, which had to satisfy all constituents, so it had so many deputy mayors. This government, therefore, started employing people immediately from the ministerial positions. Imagine what will happen with employments in managerial positions. The question is whether the state budget will be able to withstand all that.
A press conference of Prime Minister-designate Abazovic is scheduled for 11 am today, at which he is expected to announce the composition of the government. No big surprises are expected, and everything has been agreed in principle before.
SD was the only one to react sharply last night, which means that no agreement was reached on their participation until the end. The reaction of the DPS, which said last week that it expected the SD to be part of the package, remains to be seen.
The SNP, a party that can hardly grab the threshold for itself, is now deciding the fate of the state and staffing ministries in the government. If they thought that the government would gain legitimacy with the pro-Serbian part of the electorate with this decision, they were well mistaken, because it is obvious that the SNP itself loses legitimacy by the very decision to be part of this government. On the other hand, the government will not be in good relations with the sovereign electorate either because of the SDP’s participation. On the contrary.
If a government is formed, and the DPS agrees to support it, the first test for all participants in this project will be the elections in Podgorica and other cities to be organized in June. Surveys show that URA and SNP have nothing to look forward to at the moment.
Begovic’s incomprehensible decision
The Directorate for Sports and Youth, headed by the acting director Marko Begovic, made a new decision on the distribution of fuds for co-financing sports organizations. Paradoxically, the Handball Federation received €20,000 less than 15 days ago when the first decision was made and then withdrawn. It is strange when it is known that the handball players achieved another great success over the weekend and qualified for the World Cup.
Continuation of the Medenica action
Due to the suspicion that they committed criminal acts of creating a criminal organization and smuggling drugs and cigarettes, the officers of the Sector for the Fight against Organized Crime filed criminal charges against 12 people and the Niksic company Kopad. Most of them were arrested in the continuation of the action that began with the arrest of the former president of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica, while some of the suspects from other criminal offenses are in the Spuz prison. Among those arrested is Milorad Medenica, a police officer and former member of Vesna Medenica’s security. Freight forwarder Ivana Kovacevic, Vasilije Vanja Petrovic, son of the owner of the construction company Cijevna Komerc Danilo Dane Petrovic, who, according to Vijesti TV, is suspected of cigarette smuggling, were also detained. In this action in Niksic, former football player Luka Bakoc was arrested, who is charged with cigarette smuggling, and the report also includes his Kopad company.
Russian Embassy’s reaction
The Embassy of Russia in Podgorica sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro in which it asks to clarify its earlier statement on the need to terminate diplomatic relations with Russia, the embassy official told TAS S, Tanjug reported. “We have sent a note to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Montenegro asking them to provide relevant clarifications”, the official said on Monday.
That’s it for today. We wish you a pleasant rest of the day.
Kind regards,
Ljubomir Filipovic, CdM analyst
