Following the election of Dritan Abazović as Prime Minister and the new government in Montenegro, the European Parliament’s standing rapporteur for Montenegro Tonino Picula (S&D, HR) and the European Parliament’s Chair of the Delegation for Montenegro Vladimír Bilčík (EPP, SK) issued the following statement on Friday.
“We welcome yesterday’s vote in the Montenegrin Parliament and congratulate the newly elected Prime Minister Abazović and his government and the newly elected Speaker Đurović of the Montenegrin Parliament for their respective elections.
We look forward to working together with our partners on Montenegro’s path to the European Union.
While in recent months Montenegro has lost some valuable time on its European journey, we believe that the new government’s political resolve could help accelerate much needed reform process reflecting both the work on European values and the overwhelming will of Montenegro’s citizens to join the European Union.”
On 4 February 2022 the non-partisan government led by Zdravko Krivokapić, received a vote of no confidence, called by the smallest coalition bloc, Black on White (URA), and opposition parties, which deepened Montenegro’s political instability. The election of the 43rd government comes after several months of political polarisation and a lack of progress in deliberations. The term of the new government has been announced to be one year, in light of the preparation of early parliamentary elections in 2023.
