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Andrija Mandiç is the new Speaker of the Parliament of Montenegro and, at the same time, a member of the Council for Defense and Security, which commands the Army of Montenegro.
Mandić received the support of 49 deputies of the new parliamentary majority - the coalition For the Future of Montenegro (the party of the former Democratic Front), the Movement Europe Now, the Democrats, the pro-Serbian People's Socialist Party and two Albanian parties, during the voting in a session of the Montenegrin Parliament on Monday afternoon.
The Montenegrin Parliament has 81 deputies.
The deputies of the Democratic Party of Socialists in the opposition left the hall before the vote. They tied a black ribbon on the microphone in the name of what they said was a black day for democracy in Montenegro.
Mandiqi is the leader of the Serbian New Democracy - a member of the pro-Serbian and pro-Russian Democratic Front (DF) - which has recently been rebranded as the coalition For the Future of Montenegro.
The foreign policy priorities of Mandić's party are the lifting of sanctions against Russia and the withdrawal of recognition of Kosovo's independence.
She is also an opponent of Montenegro's membership in NATO. He also denies the genocide in Srebrenica, where Bosnian Serb forces killed more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys during the 1990s war.
It is also close to the ideology of the Chetnik movement, which collaborated with Hitler's Germany in World War II.
He has had the symbolic title of Chetnik duke since 2007. He has been a deputy in the Parliament of Montenegro for two decades now. He was elected head of this institution with ... votes. Mandic's election is part of a broader power-sharing package.
According to the agreement of the candidate for prime minister, Millojko Spaijic, with the new majority, the parties of the Democratic Front will support his minority Government in the Parliament and, at the end of next year, they will officially become part of it.
Official Washington has warned and expressed concern several times that the new Government consists of parties and leaders who are actively against Euro-Atlantic values. A similar position has been expressed in some cases by European institutions.
In 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin met in Belgrade with Andrija Mandić and another leader of the Democratic Front, Milan Knezhević, who were in the opposition at the time.
"Mandic and Knezhević conveyed to the president of Russia the greetings of the Serbian people in Montenegro and emphasized that the majority of Montenegro perceives him as their president", the Democratic Front said at the time.
According to that announcement, Putin told them that they are "real heroes" and that they should "endure."
Mandić and Knezhević are accused of planning a "coup" on election day in Montenegro in 2016, along with Russian service members Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov, as well as eight other Serbian nationals.
The case is related to efforts to prevent Montenegro's membership in NATO. With the verdict of the first instance, in May of that year, they were sentenced to five years in prison. The Court of Appeal rejected the decision and took the case to a new trial.
Mandić and Knezhević have denied the accusations, claiming that it is a politically staged process. A source from the US administration confirmed in 2022 that their Democratic Front was financed by Russia during the election campaign in 2016./ REL
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