The Europe Now Movement ( Montenegrin and Serbian: Pokret Evropa sad / Покрет Европа сад; PES), sometimes stylised with an exclamation mark, is a

centrist Centrism is a political outlook or position involving acceptance or support of a balance of social equality and a degree of social hierarchy while opposing political changes that would result in a significant shift of society strongly to the l ...

political organization A political organization is any organization that involves itself in the political process, including political parties, non-governmental organizations, and special interest advocacy groups. Political organizations are those engaged in politi ...

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

,Montenegro: The identity question as a sticking point
Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, 17 March 2023A fresh face and dirty games in Montenegro's presidential election
IntelliNews, 16 March 2023 founded in June 2022 by former Ministers of Finance and

Economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

Milojko Spajić Milojko "Mickey" Spajić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милојко Спајић; born 24 September 1987) is a Montenegrin politician and financial engineer who served as the Ministry of Finance (Montenegro), minister of finance and social welfare in the G ...

and

Jakov Milatović Jakov Milatović ( sr-cyrl, Јаков Милатовић, ; born 7 December 1986) is a Montenegrin politician and economist who is the incumbent president of Montenegro, serving since May 2023. He previously served as the minister of economic ...

. It describes itself as an economically-focused and anti-corruption movement, and is

economically liberal Economic liberalism is a political and economic ideology that supports a market economy based on individualism and private property in the means of production. Adam Smith is considered one of the primary initial writers on economic liberalism, ...

History

The movement was founded on 26 June 2022 by

and

, the former independent

Finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

and

Economy Ministers An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the p ...

respectively, within the short-lived technocratic cabinet formed after the 2020 parliamentary election regime change. Previously, announcing joint political engagement and the formation of a new political movement back in February 2022, shortly after the technocratic cabinet of

Zdravko Krivokapić Zdravko Krivokapić ( cyrl, Здравко Кривокапић; born 2 September 1958) is a Montenegrin professor and politician who served as Prime Minister of Montenegro from 2020 to 2022. In addition to his professorship at the Universities ...

lost the confidence by the new parliamentary majority. In addition to Spajic and Milatovic, prominent founding members of the movement include former defense minister,

Olivera Injac Olivera Injac (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Оливера Ињац; born 1976 in Podgorica) is a Montenegro, Montenegrin university professor of security and independent politician who served as the Ministry of Defence (Montenegro), Minister of Defence i ...

and university professor

Filip Ivanović Filip Ivanović ( sr-cyr, Филип Ивановић; born 13 February 1992) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a defender. Club career Born in Aranđelovac, Ivanović started his career in Karađorđe Topola football academy. ...

. The name of the movement is identical with the economic reforms program that included popular set of measures, which increased minimal wage from €222 to €450 by cutting healthcare contributions, launched in January 2022 by the ministers during their tenure. The newly-founded party also announced future cooperation with other centrist and civic-oriented political subjects, such as the Democrats-led and the URA-led coalitions, as well with the

minority interests An ethnic party is a political party that overtly presents itself as the champion of one ethnic group or sets of ethnic groups. Ethnic parties make such representation central to their voter mobilization strategy. An alternate designation is 'Pol ...

parties, opposing the activity and positions of the

DPS DPS may refer to: Schools United States * Dalton Public Schools, the public school district in Dalton, Georgia * Dearborn Public Schools, the public school district in Dearborn, Michigan * Decatur Public Schools District 61, the public school sys ...

, DF and SNP, accusing them of corruption and fueling ethnic divisions, calling them "parties and policies of the past". Prominent lawyers

Andrej Milović Andrej Milović has been the Minister of Justice in the 44th Government of Montenegro since October 31, 2023 and a member of the National Security Council. He is a member of the Presidency of the " Europe Now!" Movement and the President of the Co ...

and Vasilije Čarapić joined the movement in September 2022 and became presidency members. The movement debuted at the October 2022 local elections, seeing good results, especially in the

elections An election is a formal group decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual or multiple individuals to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy has operate ...

in the

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city ...

Podgorica Podgorica (Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Подгорица, ; Literal translation, lit. 'under the hill') is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Montenegro, largest city of Montenegro. The city was formerly known as Titograd ...

, which resulted in the fall from power of the populist

of President

Milo Đukanović Milo Đukanović ( cnr, Мило Ђукановић, ; born 15 February 1962) is a Montenegrin politician serving as the President of Montenegro since 2018, previously serving in the role from 1998 to 2003. He also served as the Prime Minister o ...

, which had ruled the city since the 1990s, with Europe Now! list balott carrier

, leading new coalition majority in the Capital City Assemby. However, the formal announcement of the results is pending since the October 2022 election, until March 2023, caused by the vacancy within the

Constitutional Court A constitutional court is a high court that deals primarily with constitutional law. Its main authority is to rule on whether laws that are challenged are in fact unconstitutional, i.e. whether they conflict with constitutionally established ...

(due to the parliamentary crisis in the country), after the minor, both Montenegrin and

Serbian nationalist Serbian nationalism asserts that Serbs are a nation and promotes the cultural and political unity of Serbs. It is an ethnic nationalism, originally arising in the context of the general rise of nationalism in the Balkans under Ottoman rule, und ...

organizations, such as "21st of May Initiative" and the Serb List, which many accuse of acting as a

spoiler party Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate. Vote spl ...

of the DPS, submitted complaints to inactive court about "irregularities during local election campaign", leaving the outgoing convocation as well DPS-led administration elected in May 2018 staying in power in acting term during 2023. The ES also obtain the mayoral post in

Danilovgrad Danilovgrad ( cnr, Даниловград) is a town in central Montenegro. It has a population of 6,852 (2011 census). It is situated in the Danilovgrad Municipality which lies along the main route between Montenegro's two largest cities, Podgoric ...

and

Žabljak Žabljak ( Serbian / Montenegrin: Жабљак, ) is a small town in northern Montenegro. It has a population of 1,723. Žabljak is the seat of Žabljak Municipality (2011 population: 3,569). The town is in the centre of the Durmitor mountain ...

, becoming part of the new ruling coalitions in seven out of 11 municipalities in which they participated in the elections. All opinion polls published in the aftermath of the local elections, as of March 2023 showed an increase in the popular support of the movement. In January 2023, movement co-founder

announced his candidacy for the March 2023 presidential elections, Eventually, he was disqualified due to suspicions he has Serbian citizenship, since Montenegrin law does not allow people with dual citizenship to run for the presidency. Spajić’s disqualification by the central election body, composed mostly by the DPS and DF delegates, was quick and did not wait for the completion of a probe launched by the Ministry of Interior. This gave food to speculation that decision was influenced by the DPS as Spajić was seen as a serious threat to incumbent president

. Commission members representing the DF also voted to disqualify Spajić. Shortly after that, movement decided to nominate its other co-founder

. In the first round, Milatović outperformed the polls, gaining 29% of the votes and eventually defeating long-ruling incumbent

in the second round runoff on 2 April, winning roughly 60% of the votes. Spajić led the movement going into the 2023 parliamentary elections, at which it became the largest party.

Electoral performance

Presidential elections

Parliamentary elections

Positions held

References

{{reflist, 3 2022 establishments in Montenegro Political parties established in 2022 Political parties in Montenegro Pro-European political parties in Montenegro