Dusko Markovic

Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic on Thursday said that his government had full legitimacy and will not quit in the face of opposition protests in the capital, Podgorica.

More than half the senior officials in the leadership of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, will be replaced by young activists, the party announced on Thursday.

Montenegro's ruling party congress, scheduled for next week, is expected to reaffirm Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic's position as leader and tighten party discipline.

Djukanovic, a former communist, has led Montenegro for almost 25 years. He is seeking his seventh mandate as leader of a party that has been in power without interruption since the beginning of the nineties.

Senior Montenegrin officials have urged the prosecution to take action after the online threats against the three MPs and local religious leaders by the jihadist who claimed to be a member of ISIS, local media reported on Sunday.

Police in Serbia and Montenegro will work together on serious crimes, including on recent murders and car bombs, Serbian Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic said on Monday after meeting his Montenegrin counterpart, Rasko Konjevic, in the Montenegrin capital, Podgorica.

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.

The Montenegrin parliament on Tuesday adopted a controversial new law on the National Security Agency, NSA, by which intelligence officers can access all databases in Montenegro only by showing official identification cards.

The third consecutive trial for the murder of the journalist Dusko Jovanovic began on Monday in the High Court in Podgorica, with the only defendant, Damir Mandic, accusing the police of "planting evidence".

Montenegro's parliament on Wednesday began a debate on a set of important judicial laws aimed at defining the work of the Constitutional Court, the lower courts, the Judicial Council and redefining the tasks of judges.  

Montenegro's Minister of Justice Dusko Markovic said the ministry had paid out more than 430,000 euros since 2010 to settle compensation cases out of court for wrongful custody.

Ministry of Justice data also show that the state had to pay over 4.8 million euros in the last four years in court for unlawfully depriving people of their liberty.