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TIRANA, August 20 – The Montenegrin government fell in a no-confidence vote early Saturday that followed a rift over relations with the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church.
Lawmakers voted 50-1 to oust the government of Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic just weeks after he signed an agreement regulating the position of the Serbian church in Montenegro.
The issue is sensitive for many in the small Balkan nation of 620,000 people that split from its much bigger neighbor Serbia in 2006. The Serbian Orthodox Church enjoys the biggest following in Montenegro, but the nation is divided over the church’s dominant role and the country’s ties to Serbia.
Critics have argued there was no need for a special deal with the Serbian church separate from other religious communities. Pro-Western groups in Montenegro also have described the agreement as a tool for Serbia and Russia to increase their influence in Montenegro amid the war in Ukraine.
Abazovic has defended the agreement as the way to put behind the long-standing church dispute over its property and other rights in Montenegro, and focus on other important issues.
“What is happening now in Montenegro will have one outcome, either Milo Djukanovic or Dritan Abazovic will disappear from the political scene. This is a political conflict in which someone must be defeated,” Abazovic told parliament minutes before the confidence vote.
The vote signaled the end of the political alliance between Abazovic and the Democratic Party of Socialists, headed by veteran leader Milo Djukanovic, which lost power in August 2020 after three decades in office, but in April started supporting Abazovic’s administration.
In the heated debate on Friday, Abazovic also accused Montenegro’s current president and seven-times premier since 1991, Milo Djukanovic, of trying to create political instability and “pushing Montenegro into big problems and into disappearing”.
It was not immediately clear whether the fall of the government would lead to snap parliamentary elections or if the parties would try to form a new govening coalition.
The previous Montenegrin government, led by Zdravko Krivokapic, was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament on February 4 this year, after only 14 months in power.
There will also be another no-confidence vote on September 2. It includes a motion to oust parliament speaker Danijela Djurovic and is backed by the opposition Democratic Front, Movement for Changes, Democratic Montenegro, DEMOS and True Montenegro..
Abazovic claimed among others that he was being attacked because of his Albanian origin something which was opposed by some politicians of Albanian community in Montenegro. They said Abazovic had never used the rhetoric of his Albanian origin in his political career.
/Argumentum.al
