Belgrade (EFE).- The first preliminary results of today’s early parliamentary elections in Montenegro show a narrow victory for the Europeanist movement Europe Now! (PES), formed a year ago, which does not ensure an end to the political crisis that the country has been experiencing since 2020.
Europe Now! (PES), formed a year ago in Montenegro, has won this Sunday in its first participation in a general election by achieving 25.6% of the votes, according to the still unofficial estimates of the NGO CeMI (Center for Control and Investigations ).
That result would give him 23 of the 81 seats in Parliament.
The Democratic Socialist Party (DSP) follows, which governed uninterruptedly between 1991 and 2020, which would achieve 23.7% of the vote and 21 deputies with its “United” coalition.
CeMI has calculated that result based on counting 99% of the votes in a series of polling stations, but its data are estimates that will not become official until tomorrow at the earliest.
“It is a great victory for PES. We have gone in a year from being an extra-parliamentary party to the largest party in Montenegro”, declared the leader of the PES, Milojko Spajic, who is shaping up to be the future prime minister.
Spajic indicated that he will form “a pro-European government”, but did not specify which parties he will speak with, although he did rule out a coalition with the DPS, which before 2020 had governed for 30 years without interruption.
“Negotiations will begin tomorrow,” said Spajic, who indicated that he will focus on seeing with which partners he can apply his program, prioritizing progress towards entry into the European Union (EU) and applying fiscal, social and pension reforms that Give results in a few years.
Spajic was together with the economist Jakov Milatovic, elected president of the country in April, co-author of an economic program that in 2021 doubled the minimum salary to 450 euros per month and increased the average salary by 40% to 700, which has given them popularity.
That party imposed socioeconomic issues in the campaign, for the first time in years, with promises of increases in wages and pensions, social assistance, the purchase of homes with subsidies and large infrastructure projects, an example that other parties also followed to preserve competitiveness.
The interim leader of the DPS, Danijel Zivkovic, assured tonight that without his participation “there will be no stable and European government.”
“We will dictate the timing of political changes in Montenegro,” said Zivkovic, who has vowed to bring the country into the EU.
The third force, with 14.8% and 13 deputies, would be the pro-Russian and pro-Serbian coalition “For the Future of Montenegro”, which for years along with the DPS was the protagonist of the deep polarization of society, with disputes over whether to continue the pro-Western path or maintain traditional Russian ties.
According to these data, based on still unofficial estimates, the fourth is the recently formed pro-European coalition “Lo Valiente se Cuenta”, with 12.2% and 11 seats, and whose leaders assured that without them there will be no stable government and announced their aspiration to meet the criteria for joining the EU in the next four years.
The Bosnian Party (BS) would have 6.8% of the votes or 6 deputies.
According to these projections, the parties of the Albanian minorities, with 3 deputies, and the Croatian, with one, will enter Parliament, it is pending whether any other party has exceeded the 3% necessary to enter Parliament.
Some 540,000 citizens with the right to vote were called to the polls to elect the 81 deputies of the Montenegrin Parliament and put an end to three years of political instability in the country.
The instability has led to the fall of two governments since 2020, when the DPS lost power for the first time in three decades.
The electoral campaign was marked at its end by accusations of Spajic’s alleged links with the “king of cryptocurrencies” Do Kwon, claimed by South Korea and the United States on accusations of having defrauded 40,000 million dollars.
Do Kwon was arrested in Montenegro last March with forged documents and is awaiting a decision on his extradition.
The suspicions are based on a letter that Do Kwon addressed to the Prime Minister, Dritan Abazovic, in which he allegedly talks about his contacts with Spajic and the financing of his party.
Spajic assures that it is an attempt to fabricate a scandal to prevent the victory of the PES.