Politics More pro-Serbian influence in Montenegro's new government

The NATO and EU candidate country Montenegro has a new cabinet with more pro-Serbian and Bosniak influence. Just under nine months after taking office, Montenegro's pro-European Prime Minister Milojko Spajic has reshuffled his government. He was thus able to increase his majority in parliament from 46 to 53 members. On Tuesday, 53 of the 81 members of parliament voted in favor of the new government. The opposition boycotted the vote.

Spajic's Europe Now (PES) party won the parliamentary elections in June 2023, but was far from an absolute majority. Only after a long tug-of-war was Spajic able to form his first coalition government in October 2023. In the small Balkan country on the Adriatic, the issue of ethnicity still divides society. In 2006, the country declared its independence and broke away from its union with neighboring Serbia. Some of its 600,000 inhabitants consider themselves to belong to the Serbian nation.

Four of the newly appointed ministers belong to the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) party of parliamentary speaker Andrija Mandic, who is said to have good connections to the Kremlin. The pro-Serbian and pro-Russian small parties, including NSD and the Alliance ZBCG (formerly: DF), had also previously supported the Spajic government - albeit without ministerial posts, but only in important positions in the state administration and in state and state-affiliated companies.

The previously oppositional Bosniak party BS received five ministerial posts. Ervin Ibrahimovic is the first Bosniak to be appointed foreign minister in Montenegro. He is also one of the seven deputy heads of government. Bosniaks are southern Slavs of Muslim faith, the majority of whom live in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The entire cabinet has 29 members. The opposition accused the Bosniak Party of making common cause with the Pro-Serbs and Prorussians by joining the government.

SDA