DNP Won't Attend Vote to Remove Mandic in Podgorica
DNP lawmakers say they won't provide quorum for Thursday's session on removing Montenegro's parliament speaker Andrija Mandic, as part of the opposition claims a deal with former majority allies.
Lawmakers from the Democratic People’s Party (DNP) will not attend tomorrow’s extraordinary session of Montenegro’s parliament, where the sole item on the agenda is the removal of parliament speaker Andrija Mandic, the party’s parliamentary caucus announced today. The decision further complicates an already uncertain vote, and it carries weight for Belgrade too: the dispute in Podgorica touches on Serbian politics in Montenegro, since Mandic chairs New Serb Democracy (NSD), and the trigger for his removal was a condolence message he sent to the family of Ratko Mladic.
The extraordinary session was called for noon on Thursday, September 24, at the request of the opposition Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). Montenegro’s parliament has 81 seats, and at least 41 lawmakers must be present for it to convene; removing the speaker requires a majority of those present, not of the full chamber. DPS launched the initiative after Mandic sent condolences on August 27 to the son of the late Ratko Mladic, who was convicted with finality of genocide and war crimes committed during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Mandic said he sent the message both in his own name and on behalf of New Serb Democracy.
How many lawmakers actually back the removal?
The answer depends on who you ask. The count of signatures behind the initiative varies: DPS and part of the opposition put it at 38 of the chamber’s 81 lawmakers, while only 33 have been publicly confirmed by name: 16 from DPS, six from the Bosniak Party, four from the Civic Movement URA, three from the European Alliance, one each from the Croatian Civic Initiative and independent lawmaker Nikola Janovic, and two from the Albanian Forum. Opposed to the removal are the ruling Europe Now Movement of Prime Minister Milojko Spajic, the Democrats, the Socialist People’s Party, and Mandic’s own New Serb Democracy.
Until this morning, DNP had said it would attend the session and vote against the removal, but the caucus reversed course today after party leader Milan Knezevic spoke with Mandic. The caucus said in a statement:
Following talks between DNP leader Milan Knezevic and Parliament Speaker Andrija Mandic, the caucus once again reviewed the current political moment and decided not to provide quorum to the sponsors of this initiative, who have received support and signatures from parts of the parliamentary majority as well.
The party left the parliamentary majority back in January, but says that has not changed its stance toward Mandic:
Regardless of the fact that DNP left the parliamentary majority in January of this year, and despite the political differences we have with NSD, the DNP caucus will never take a step that would enable the removal of Andrija Mandic, and that will be the case tomorrow as well.
This marks the third attempt to remove Mandic since he took over as speaker in October 2023.
What is Brussels saying?
Ahead of the vote, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Montenegro, Marjan Sarec, weighed in as well, telling the show Eurozona on Television E that he expects there will be a quorum on Thursday. Sarec noted that Brussels does not question Mladic’s status:
It should be stressed that for us in the EU, Ratko Mladic is neither a hero nor a general.
The rapporteur added that a potential removal should not trigger a crisis in the parliamentary majority, but warned that a lack of quorum would send a bad signal:
It’s not ideal to have no quorum. I don’t like it when a match is forfeited, I like to watch it played out.
The current momentum in European institutions, he said, might not last long. “It’s not certain that the momentum in the EU will last forever. This is now or never,” Sarec said. Mandic’s condolence message to the Mladic family was also condemned by the European Union Delegation to Montenegro and Croatia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which said it would insist on confronting the past during the EU accession talks.
The case is sensitive for Belgrade for two reasons. The first is political: NSD, which Mandic chairs, represents part of the Serb political bloc in Montenegro, so his removal would shift the balance of power in that especially sensitive corner of politics. The second is diplomatic: Podgorica is going through this clash over Mladic just as it tries to speed up its EU membership talks, and Brussels has made clear it treats officials’ conduct toward war criminals convicted with finality as a test of readiness, not as an internal matter. The fact that reactions came from Zagreb as well, not only from Brussels, confirms the issue has regional weight.
The vote in parliament will be secret, so the final balance of forces in the chamber won’t be known until the vote itself. The session opens at noon on Thursday, and the outcome will hinge as much on how many lawmakers actually show up as on who has pledged support in advance.
