In the presidential elections in Montenegro, held on April 2, the leader of the new political force, the Europe Now movement, Yakov Milatovic, won about 60% of the vote. This is evidenced by preliminary results published by the Center for Monitoring and Research (CEMI).
The current head of the republic, Milo Djukanovic, who has been in power for more than 30 years, received, according to these data, about 40% of the vote. He is the permanent leader of the Democratic Party of Socialists, which in recent decades has pursued a course towards integration into NATO and the European Union. Both candidates promised to speed up the country's accession to the European Union.
The voter turnout was about 70%. The final political alignment in Montenegro, which has been in a state of political crisis for a long time, will be determined by the results of the June parliamentary elections. Đukanović's party went into opposition in 2020, losing elections amid economic problems and a conflict with the Serbian Orthodox Church over property. At the moment, Milatovic's party is not represented in parliament.
Milatovic, who entered politics three years ago, became a last-minute presidential candidate. He put forward his candidacy instead of the chairman of the movement, Milojko Spaic, who was accused of hiding information about the presence of Serbian citizenship. Milatović was the Minister of Economy in the government of Zdravko Krivokapić, often referred to as the "Cabinet of the 12 Apostles" due to support from the Serbian Orthodox Church. Milatovic is known for launching a program to raise wages and pensions by eliminating health care contributions. This brought him popularity, but critics accuse him of populism, believing that this leads to bankruptcy according to the Greek scenario.
Milatovic's victory was made possible largely thanks to the support of the SOC and the votes of Andrija Mandic, a representative of the Democratic Front, which is considered a pro-Serbian and pro-Russian movement. In the first round, he won almost 19% of the vote and called on his voters to support Yankovic.
One of the most notable facts of Mandić's biography is his involvement in the 2016 coup d'état attempt, on which the final court decision has not yet been made. In 2016, the Montenegrin authorities accused Russian and Serbian citizens of trying to seize the parliament and other state institutions by force. It was argued that the radicals were supposed to provoke riots during a rally after the end of the parliamentary elections, and power in the end was supposed to pass from Djukanovic to the Democratic Front, with whom Moscow pinned hopes for stopping integration into NATO. (Montenegro joined NATO in 2017.)
Relations between Russia and Montenegro are now virtually frozen. Montenegro condemned the military operation in Ukraine and joined the EU sanctions against the Russian Federation. During 2022, the Montenegrin authorities expelled two-thirds of Russian diplomats from the country, including all consular employees. The refusal of the Montenegrin authorities to overfly the plane of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who was on his way to Belgrade last June, was called in Moscow "no less a historical mistake than the toast of the heir to the throne of Montenegro for the Japanese admiral in 1905."