Montenegro’s veteran PM Djukanovic steps down

Montenegro’s veteran Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic yesterday resigned, prompting opposition calls for an early election days after the Balkans state was given formal status as a European Union candidate.

Mr Djukanovic, the 48-year-old pioneer of Montenegro’s independence and the only Balkan leader to have held on to power since the collapse of former Yugoslavia, has been prime minister five times and president once.

But, announcing his resignation, he told reporters that “now when Montenegro is a stable country, when it is at the doors of European Union and Nato... the conditions have been met for my withdrawal” from the government.

The opposition claimed Mr Djukanovic had to resign due to international pressure over cigarette-smuggling allegations.

But the veteran politician said that “the decision was neither sudden nor hasty and was made under nobody’s pressure.”