Montenegro PM-designate named to form pro-Western government

By PREDRAG MILIC
Associated Press
PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — Montenegro’s president has appointed a new prime minister-designate, paving the way for the formation of a pro-Western government in the Balkan nation amid fears tensions that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could spill over in the volatile region. President Milo Djukanovic on Thursday gave the mandate to form the new government to Dritan Abazovic, a former deputy prime minister in the previous pro-Serbian Cabinet, who later initiated the government’s fall citing stalled European Union integration process. The previous Montenegrin government fell after a no-confidence vote in the parliament last month. That government was formed after an election in 2020, ousting Djukanovic’s Democratic Party of Socialists which had ruled for some 30 years.