“I open the debate, who wants to speak?”, the chairman of the Parliamentary Administrative Committee Luigj Skrelja said addressing to the committee members at this morning’s sitting.
However there was silence. No one wanted to speak.
There are no discussions and committee sittings are pure formality at which the decisions are adopted with no tension. In short, this is what Montenegrin Parliament has been like since the opposition began boycotting the work of this institution.
In an informal conversation, a CdM journalist asked the ruling coalition MPs what their work in the Parliament without opposition was like.
DPS MP Obrad Miso Stanisic said with a laugh: “It’s strange to me, I cannot function without them.”
President of the Liberal Party (LP), Andrija Popovic said immediately:
“What is with no opposition like – bad! But we have to work even though, as you can see, there is little dynamics,” said Popovic.
DPS MP Marta Scepanovic just shrugged.
“They can come whenever they want,” she said.
Her party colleague Milorad Vuletic said the committee sittings were monotonous.
“But what can we do – we have to work,” said Vuletic.
Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) MP Adrian Vuksanovic said that “it was not the same without opposition”.
“We would come up with more creative solutions with them. But still, we may differ in opinions but voters did not vote for them to avoid Parliament work,” said Vuksanovic.
It is still uncertain if there is a solution to this situation.
The Administrative Committee chairman Luigj Skrelja announced that the Parliament would establish an expenditure register which will record how much MPs spend and how much they work.
“Every regional parliament sanctions MPs’ absence except for ours. We need to consult with them to see what to do,” Skrelja said at today’s sitting.
The opposition has been boycotting the Parliament since the parliamentary elections on 16 October, because, as they say, unexplained circumstances in the case of attempted terrorism. Among others, the leaders of Democratic Front (DF) have been suspected in this case.
