Montenegro’s New Authorities Move to Fire Special Prosecutor

Ruling majority MPs and government members in the Montenegrin parliament. Photo: Parliament of Montenegro

Katnic was deeply unpopular with the former opposition for his role in securing guilty verdicts for 13 people - including two opposition leaders - accused of plotting to overthrow the previous government in 2016.

On Wednesday, the three blocs comprising the ruling majority announced that parliament will debate the proposal on February 18, adding that a new prosecutorial office was needed to improve the fight against widespread corruption in the country.

"To affirm the rule of law and the fight against corruption, certain changes need to be made. So far, the Special State Prosecutor's Office has not met expectations in the fight against corruption and has a very limited scope, so we need to form a special office to deal just with this problem," the proposed law says.

The current Special Prosecutor's Office was formed in 2015 and was led for two mandates by Katnic, who was often criticized by opposition parties and civic activists for his ties to the then ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS.

In parliamentary elections held in August last year, three opposition blocs won a slender majority of 41 of the 81 seats in parliament, ousting the DPS, which had ruled Montenegro since the early 1990s.

After the new government was formed on December 4, 2020, the coalition leaders announced changes to the prosecution, saying they wanted to make the fight against corruption and organised crime a priority.

In its latest report on Montenegro's progress towards membership, the European Commission noted only "limited progress" in the fight against corruption, which it said remained "prevalent in many areas and remains an issue of...