Montenegrin police clashed with protesters who rallied in the capital Podgorica on Monday after the government passed a controversial law limiting presidential powers and the parliament failed to appoint judges to the constitutional court.
The police had to use pepper spray to disperse several hundred protesters, who belong to the movement ‘Ima nas’ (‘We are Numerous’), which describes itself as patriotic and has the backing of President Milo Djukanovic’s DPS party and its allies.
The protesters, who say the new law is unconstitutional and amounts to a coup, chanted “Treason, treason” and one of their members, activist Predrag Vušurović, announced a blockade of all major towns in the tiny NATO member and EU candidate country of 600,000 people.
“What we did today was the blockade of Podgorica… Until the next rally on Saturday, there will be a blockade of all Montenegrin towns,” Vušurović said.
The Adriatic country has been in political deadlock for months – ever since Prime Minister Dritan Abazović’s government failed to survive a no-confidence motion in parliament in August.
In September, President Milo Djukanović rejected a proposed prime minister-designate and instead suggested an early dismissal of the parliament, but this has not happened yet.
Meanwhile, Abazović is clinging on to power until the possible early election, which has yet to be called, while the ruling alliance has a wafer-thin one-seat majority in the 81-seat parliament. The regular parliamentary election is not due until 2024.
Compounding the political conundrum, the country’s constitutional court was left without a quorum due to the retirement of judges and parliament has been unable to agree on two new members, which makes it difficult to organise any national election.
The country, which quit a state union with Serbia in 2006, is split down the middle between pro-Montenegro loyalists and those who see themselves as Serbs and oppose Montenegro’s independence.
(Zoran Radosavljević | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
