Mladen Bojanic

The first stretch of the Bar-Boljare highway in Montenegro. Photo: Government of Montenegro

According to a feasibility study by URS Infrastructure and Environment, a British engineering consultancy, the first phase of the highway should cost $803 million euros, while a study by another British consultancy, Scott Wilson Group, said it should cost $570 million.

An oil and gas exploration platform in the Black Sea. Photo: EPA-EFE/VASSIL DONEV

A consortium of Italy's Eni and Russia's Novatek plans on March 25 to start exploratory oil and gas drilling offshore from Montenegro under a concession contract signed in 2016.

Montenegro airlines transport students during the pandemic. Photo: Government of Montenegro

Capital Investments Minister Mladen Bojanic said it would cost 50 million euros to close the flag carrier and take up to nine months to create a new one.

Local elections on May 20 in the tiny northern town of Pluzine, which just over 2,500 voters, are being seen as an important trial of strength both for the opposition and ruling parties in Montenegro.  

Pluzine is the only town in Montenegro where the country's ruler for several decades, Milo Djukanovic, and his party, have never won either a general or local election.

Still awaiting the final results of the Sunday's presidential election, both the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists party, DPS, and the opposition are hurriedly turning attention to the local election in Podgorica, which could be the most important poll this year.

They stress that the candidate whose party "said no to Russia and brought the country into NATO" has won.

AP said that Djukanovic "swept the election avoiding a runoff, and pledged to keep the small Balkan country firmly on a European path after it joined NATO last year in defiance of Russia."

Preliminary results of Sunday's presidential elections in Montenegro show Milo Djukanovic, the leader of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, has won another term as head of state after serving as Prime Minister six times and as President once.

Milo Djukanovic, who has dominated politics in Montenegro as president and prime minister for almost three decades, is running for another presidential term as voters cast their ballots in Sunday's election.

Former politician Mladen Bojanic will run as an independent candidate for the April 15 presidential election in Montenegro with the support of almost all opposition parties in parliament.

The development brings together normally divided opposition groups in the country and may increase their chances of winning the election against an unknown ruling party candidate.

Montenegro's newest party, the Civic Movement, presented its leadership and program on Monday, describing itself as a pro-Western force that aims to "work hard to create a fair and balanced society".

The Civic Movement says will strive for three fundamental objectives - a civil state, a democratic change of government and Euro-Atlantic values.