Montenegro Prime Minister Reshuffles Cabinet

Djukanovic on Monday presented the five new ministers to the leaderhip of his ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS after months of speculation about changes within the government.
 
It is expected that parliament will vote on the new Education, Culture, Health, Justice and Labour ministers at its session scheduled for Tuesday.

Djukanovic proposed the current Labour Minister Predrag Boskovic as the new Minister of Education, after his predecessor, Slavoljub Stijepovic, was appointed mayor of the capital Podgorica in September.

Boskovic's successor at the Ministry of Labour will reportedly be Zoran Jelic, a senior official of the ruling DPS. Jelic has been the head of the National Employment Agency for several years.

The new Health Minister will be Budimir Segrt, director of the largest private hospital in the country, Meljine. In December, the previous longtime minister Miodrag Radunovic resigned after a deadly infection was revealed in a hospital in the north of the country. 

A prominent Montenegrin writer, Pavle Goranovic, will be the new Culture Minster. Goranovic will take office at the ministry which has been without a chief since last June when the former minister Branislav Micunovic was appointed as the Montenegrin ambassador to Serbia.

Surprisingly, Djukanovic has decided to appoint a new Justice Minister, a position that for years was occupied by one of his closest associates, Dusko Markovic. The new justice minister will be Zoran Pazin, currently Montenegro's representative at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Markovic, a former longterm head of the Montenegrin secret service, will remain the Deputy Prime Minister responsible for the political system, internal...