Montenegro’s long-ruling chief Milo Djukanovic acknowledged defeat to Jakov Milatovic.

Montenegro’s former Financial system Minister Jakov Milatovic has declared victory in a presidential election run-off, forward of longstanding incumbent Milo Djukanovic.

“Tonight is the evening now we have been ready for over 30 years,” Milatovic informed cheering supporters of his right-centrist Europe Now Motion at its get together headquarters in Podgorica on Sunday.

“Throughout the subsequent 5 years, we’ll lead Montenegro into the European Union,” he stated.

Montenegro’s long-ruling chief Djukanovic acknowledged his defeat to Milatovic.

“Montenegro has made its alternative. I respect that alternative, and I congratulate Jakov Milatovic,” Djukanovic, who will stay at his submit till the handover on Could 21, informed his backers on the headquarters of his Democratic Get together of Socialists (DPS) in Podgorica.

Djukanovic has been a political mainstay in Montenegro for many years, rotating by way of varied positions – together with a number of stints as each president and prime minister.

The run-off got here two weeks after the primary spherical, the place Djukanovic beat again a spread of opponents hoping to shake up the political scene. In that race, Djukanovic garnered 35 % of the vote in contrast with 29 % for Milatovic.

Sunday’s loss represents one of many largest setbacks for Djukanovic since he first took the helm of the previous Yugoslav republic in 1991 and later oversaw its declaration of independence in 2006.

His defeat will seemingly weigh closely on the steadiness of energy within the Balkan nation forward of snap parliamentary elections due in June, following months of gridlock after the federal government collapsed in August within the wake of a no-confidence vote.

Montenegro’s president, elected for a five-year time period, has a largely ceremonial place, and many of the political energy resides with the prime minister.

Milatovic favoured

Within the run-up to Sunday’s vote, Milatovic appeared to seize the eagerness of younger voters searching for an injection of recent faces into the nation’s management. He was additionally favoured in surveys.

Milatovic made political headlines as minister of financial growth after the 2020 parliamentary elections, which resulted within the first authorities not dominated by the DPS.

A father of three, he made his mark with a controversial financial programme that, amongst different issues, doubled the minimal wage.

Nonetheless, the minimal wage is simply 450 euros ($490) a month within the tiny nation, which stays closely reliant on tourism due to its picturesque seashores alongside the Adriatic and its rugged mountains.

The DPS, however, has witnessed repeated setbacks for the reason that get together suffered its first main defeat within the 2020 parliamentary elections.

Since then, Montenegro has stumbled from disaster to disaster that has seen the collapse of two governments.

Below the management of Djukanovic and his get together, Montenegro joined NATO, kick-started the negotiating course of for EU membership and moved away from Russia’s affect.