WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
Choose language:
AUTHOR: M.J.
The MP of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) Andrija Nikolić called on the parliamentary majority to withdraw the Draft Law on Pension and Disability Insurance (PIO) and to initiate the broadest dialogue on this topic in which the professional public would be involved. He pointed out that these changes are intended to enable the president of the Constitutional Court, Milorad Gogić, to spend another year in that position.
Members of Parliament of the Europe Now Movement, Vasilije Čarapić and Darko Dragović, proposed an amendment to the Law on PIO on the basis of which an exception to the conditions for retirement would be prescribed in favor of judges of the Constitutional Court.
Nikolić said that by submitting this decision, the ruling majority was caught in unscrupulous and open political influence on the highest constitutional and legal instance in the country.
They destroyed every principle of the rule of law they talk about in order to make the law anti-systemic because of one man. They launched a political battle for Milorad Gogić, the president of the Constitutional Court, just as they once waged a political battle to remove Milivoj Katnić from the judicial system - said Nikolić at a press conference.
In this legal carousel, says Nikolić, the parliamentary majority first proposed changes to the Law on the Constitutional Court, which they then voted against at the Legislative Committee, characterizing it as an unconstitutional proposal. Then, as he points out, they came up with the idea of removing one insured person from the system by amending the PIO Act and, in accordance with that political interest, package the solution by making an even more serious legal offense.
What then should an ordinary citizen assume to be hiding behind these political-legal stunts? This is a pattern of political corruption. If you are passing an anti-systemic law, and at the end of last year you changed the PIO Act, again based on the opinion of the Constitutional Court that neither men nor women should be discriminated against, but that the limit for retirement should be 65 - you are changing that limit today because of the president of the Constitutional Court in order to ensure that he spends another year in that position. What message does it send to the citizens and what can be the message of the assumed outcome in the parliament? Can an ordinary citizen trust the constitutional and legal system tomorrow? Because tomorrow the Constitutional Court will decide on the constitutionality of the norm proposed by the Parliament, and it concerns them directly, i.e. the judges who sit in the Constitutional Court - stressed Nikolić.
He pointed out that even in autocratic and dictatorial regimes, the law was not changed because of one man.
It is to be expected, as he said, that on this occasion the Minister of Justice Andrej Milović and the Judicial Council will make an announcement and inform about the nature of "this political-legal conundrum".
We need to get the IBAR, that fills the mouth of the Government of Montenegro. Imagine, we should get IBAR from the area of rule of law, and look at the mess we are operating in. They want to take power in Šavnik by force, system laws are changed contrary to all rules and democratic procedures, the opposition is not allowed to exercise a control role in the parliament by stopping all control initiatives, the Prime Minister informs us in this House that for him it is completely wasted time for him to come to the parliament and give accounts to the citizens' representatives... A logical question arises - what does this look like and how long will this frivolity last and whether this is a country whose government with such a frivolous approach should receive a positive report tomorrow about temporary benchmarks in the area of the rule of law - asked Nikolić.
"Vice President of the Assembly to be the fruit of the agreement of the minority parties"
Nikolić expressed his opinion and the new vice-president of the Assembly from among less numerous peoples should be the result of a political agreement on the subject of minority parties. Otherwise, as he said, one gets the impression that they want to favor one, while disciplining and dislocating from the agreement other parties of less numerous nations.
A lot of things in the Montenegrin parliament and state politics take place with ad hoc and instant solutions that do not follow democratic standards and procedures, but their goal is to exclusively conform to the interests of the parliamentary majority. Here, the operational norm that guaranteed that the vice-president from among minorities is decided within the framework of parliamentary parties that come from less numerous peoples is suspended. Now they changed that decision so that the parliamentary majority would decide who should get the position of vice president from among the minorities. That speaks volumes about the state of democracy and how they perceive democracy - concluded Nikolić.
