Djukanovic will hand over the office/ The elected president of Montenegro, Jakov Millatovic, is sworn in today

2023-05-20 10:25:21, Kosova & Bota CNA

Djukanovic will hand over the office/ The elected president of Montenegro, Jakov

The elected president of Montenegro, Jakov Milatovic

The elected President of Montenegro, Jakov Milatovic, on May 20 at noon, will take the oath and assume the office of the head of the country.

About 200 dignitaries, including officials from the neighborhood, ambassadors and the special envoy of the United States of America (USA), Gabriel Escobar, will take part in the inauguration, respectively, in the swearing-in ceremony held in the Parliament of Montenegro. .

The ceremony will also be attended by members of the Parliament of Montenegro, representatives of the government, judicial authorities, as well as the current president of Montenegro, Milo Djukanovic, whom Millatovic convincingly defeated in the second round of the presidential elections, in beginning of April.

The central part of the city of Podgorica has been blocked since morning, as well as the road to the airport.

After the singing of the national anthem, as well as the oath of Millatovi?, he will deliver the inaugural speech, after which a ceremonial military salute will be held on the platform in front of the Parliament.

After that, Millatovic will host the guests at a lunch, while in the late afternoon, in the state Villa Gorica, he and his wife will host around 700 guests.

Among them will be the president of Croatia, Zoran Milanovi?, the president of Kosovo, Vjosa Osmani, the president of Albania, Bajram Begaj, while Zhelko Cvijanovi? and Zhelko Komši? will be present from the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The arrival of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has not been confirmed.

From the European officials, present will be Oliver Ropke, president of the European Economic and Social Committee of the European Commission, while from Great Britain and Germany, the special envoys for the Western Balkans, Stuart Pich and Manuel Saracin.

The president of Montenegro is elected every five years, while all previous inaugurations were held in Cetina.

Jakov Millatovic, 37, is the first president not from Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which held power for three decades until August 2020, when he lost the election.

Millatovic, one of the leaders of the "Europe Now" movement, founded a year ago, has been in Montenegrin politics for three years when he was appointed minister of the first government after the DPS left power.

In the presidential race, he had the support of the ruling parties, the pro-Russian Democratic Front, the Democrats and the URA Civic Movement.

Since the early 1990s, Djukanovic has been prime minister six times and president twice of Montenegro.

After losing power in the parliamentary elections, almost three years ago, his DPS also lost the elections in Podgorica, in October. After losing the presidential election, Djukanovic resigned from the post of party chairman.

In recent days, Djukanovic and Millatovic held two meetings as part of the handover procedure, after which they emphasized that Montenegro is a good example of the democratic transition of power.

The change of the head of state comes before the extraordinary parliamentary elections scheduled for June 11. They were announced because of the institutional crisis that stopped European integration.

Since the change of power, for almost three years, two governments have fallen, while the attempt to elect a third one was unsuccessful. In that period, there was an increase in ethnic tensions.

During the rule of Djukanovic, Montenegro voted for the independence of the country in the referendum of 2006. In 2010, Montenegro became a candidate for membership in the European Union, while in 2017 it joined NATO./ REL