Election result in Podgorica brings DPS back to life: Is the ruling party losing the capital of Montenegro?

By Senja Mahinić/Istraga.ba

Yesterday, local elections were held in Podgorica, where the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) achieved the best result, winning 29.9 percent of the votes, or 19 mandates out of a total of 58 in the City Assembly. The result could lead to the ruling party in Montenegro, whose backbone consists of the Europe Now Movement (PES) and Democrats, losing control of the capital, given that they have fewer mandates than the opposition.

The PES and Democrats list (Europe Now – Democrats – Even Stronger – prof. dr. Saša Mujović) won only 21.8 percent of the votes, or 14 mandates.

The Podgorica elections were organized after the President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatović, left PES, i.e., due to a conflict with the party president and current Prime Minister of Montenegro, Milojko Spajić, which resulted in the overthrow of the city majority.

Milatović's list (For a Better Podgorica), which also included URA, the party of former Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, won 10.5 percent of the votes, securing six mandates.

The far-right Serbian parties NSD and DNP (“For the Future of Podgorica – City of All of Us”) won 20.2 percent of the votes, or 13 mandates.

The SDP and SD list (European Alliance – Boris Mugoša) won 5.4 percent of the votes, securing three mandates. The Party of European Progress (SEP), led by former DPS member and former Prime Minister Duško Marković, won two mandates, as did the Preokret list. The Bosniak Party did not pass the census (1.2) despite running on a minority list.

In total, opposition parties won 32 mandates, and a majority of 30 votes is sufficient to form the city government.

The DPS, Milatović's and URA's joint city list, the European Alliance, SEP, and Preokret could form the government, but other combinations exist.

Although not a very respectable result for the president's list, the formation of a majority in Podgorica will depend on Milatović. This puts him in a serious dilemma: to go with PES, which he recently left, thus rendering his departure meaningless, or with DPS, whose government he opposed as a joint candidate of PES, Democrats, and far-right Serbian parties in the 2023 presidential elections, receiving over 200,000 votes.

It is certainly not much easier for the DPS president, Danijel Živković, as entering the city government with some of the parties that, on the wave of protests, overthrew the government of Milo Đukanović, will certainly not leave much room for criticism from those parties that decided to become part of Spajić's government, such as the Bosniak Party.

On the other hand, the poor result in Podgorica seriously undermines the legitimacy of Spajić's government, which will increase pressure for new parliamentary elections to be called, and at the same time shows that the July government reconstruction did not boost his popularity. We remind you that in July, in addition to the Bosniak Party, the far-right Serbian parties, the New Serbian Democracy (NSD) and the Democratic People's Party (DNP), joined the government.

Furthermore, the result in Podgorica showed that the voters of the Bosniak Party did not react identically to the decision of BS to participate in the Montenegrin government. While the election results in Gusinje positioned BS excellently, doubling its number of mandates, the results in Podgorica are undoubtedly a disappointment for leader Ervin Ibrahimović.