Montenegro’s populist Europe Now (PES), which won the June 11 snap general election, has managed to gather together a large number of parties in coalition that would have significantly more than 50% seats in parliament, hoping to secure stability for reforms needed for the country’s progress towards EU membership.

However, this coalition, similar to the previous one, comprises parties varying from civic pro-Western to pro-Serb, pro-Russian and those representing ethnic minorities, a recipe for tough and insecure reform outcomes.

PES was named after the Europe Now reforms programme drafted by the party’s two founders – its leader Miloko Spajic and Montenegro's President Jakov Milatovic who is co-leader of the party.

The two were ministers of finance and economy in ex-government of Zdravko Krivokapic and managed to draft and pass the programme that envisaged a significant increase of public sector wages and the living standard of citizens, as well as reforms that would improve the country’s economy.

Now PES pledges to implement a Europe Now 2.0 programme, intended to further improve living standards and public finances. The party has not revealed details of its programme but has committed to speed up reforms to secure Montenegro’s EU integration and membership.

On the other hand, PES is ready to improve relations with Serbia, which won over the pro-Serb parties.

After the June vote, PES won 24 seats in the 81-seat parliament, followed by the former ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) with 21 seats and pro-Serb and pro-Russian For the Future of Montenegro (ZBCG) with 13. 

A coalition between outgoing Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic's civic URA party and the Democratic Montenegro party was in fourth place with 11 seats. The It Is Clear! coalition of Bosniaks got six seats, while the pro-Serb Socialist People’s Party (SNP) and the Albanian Forum party have two MPs each, and the Croatian Civic Initiative (HGI) and the Albanian Alliance have one representative in parliament each.

PES held coalition talks with all the parties except the DPS and URA. All the other formations have now agreed to back a PES-led government. Although there was no information on how many representatives of Democratic Montenegro have entered parliament in coalition with URA, it can be assumed that they have at least five MPs.

PES quickly secured the support of the smaller parties but it took longer to reach an agreement with ZBCG. 

The pro-Russian coalition initially complained it did not receive a formal proposal to participate in the ruling coalition and the government. PES then published on its website what it has proposed to ZBCG – a deputy prime minister, four ministers and 40% of the lower-level state administration. After that, ZBCG accepted PES’ proposal.

With a strong presence of pro-Serb and pro-Russian politicians, PES will likely feel like it is herding cats. It is still unclear which ministerial seats will be given to the ZBCG, but PES may come to regret bringing the part into its government; in the past the parties that make up ZBCG it have blocked any efforts at reforms that would bring Montenegro closer to accession in the EU.