PODGORICA (Reuters) – Montenegrin police used pepper spray to disperse hundreds of protesters in the capital Podgorica who rallied against the adoption of law to limit presidential powers and the ruling coalition’s failure to appoint judges to the constitutional court.
Protesters, largely members of pro-Montenegrin organisations, who rallied under the slogan “We Are Many,” pelted police in front of the parliament building with rocks and signal flares, and attempted to break through a police barrier, before they were pushed away.
“What we made today was the blockade of Podgorica,” said Predrag Vusurovic, an activist. He announced more rallies across the small Adriatic republic for Friday.
Montenegro has been in political deadlock for months after its constitutional court was left without a quorum due to retirement of judges.
The court’s blockage could make it difficult to organise next year’s presidential elections and early parliamentary elections.
The 81-seat parliament in which a heterogeneous coalition of pro-European and pro-Serb parties has a majority of one deputy, could not agree to appoint the new judges.
Last month, pro-Montenegrin organisations and opposition parties started anti-government protests in Podgorica, demanding elections, the unblocking of the court and the withdrawal of a law which curbs power of Montenegro’s long-time President Milo Djukanovic.
Montenegro is a NATO member and a candidate to join the European Union.
Politics in the tiny Balkan republic of only 625,000 people has long been marked by a rift between those who identify as Montenegrins and those who see themselves as Serbs and oppose Montenegro’s independence from a former state union with neighbouring and much larger Serbia.
(Reporting by Stevo Vasiljevic, Writing by Aleksandar Vasovic; Editing by David Gregorio)
