For the purpose of renting business premises for parliamentary political parties from the budget of Montenegro, from 1 January 2020 to 31 March 2023, a total of 1,701,600.57 EUR was paid, according to data obtained by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) from the former Cadastre and State Property Administration (UKDI), in accordance with the Free Access to Information Law.
For the first quarter of 2023, a total of 114,464.37 EUR was allocated for these purposes, for the year 2022 – 540.293.28 EUR , for the year 2021 – 517,320.44 EUR , and for the year 2020 – 529,522.48 EUR, according to the available data.
The data refer to 18 political parties – Socialist People’s Party (SNP), Bosniak Party (BS), New Serbian Democracy (NSD), Movement for Change (PzP), Liberal Party (LP), Democratic Montenegro (Democrats), DEMOS, FORCA, Democratic People’s Party (DNP), True Montenegro, United Montenegro (UCG), Democratic Alliance of Albanians, Labour Party, Positive Montenegro (PCG), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Social Democrats of Montenegro (SD), Albanian Alternative (AA), Civic Movement URA and two coalitions – Albanians Decisively and Albanian Coalition Unanimously. There is no data for the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) in this section because this party used premises belonging to the state during that time period.
Also, during this period, certain political entities were paying for two business premises at different locations (NSD, Democrats, the coalition Albanians Decisively) while for some the data varied (for URA, during 2020 and 2021 funds were allocated for one premisse, and during 2022 and 2023 for two premisses). Monthly allocations for these purposes for individual subjects ranged from 388.43 EUR to 12, 375.05 EUR.
During the analyzed period, in each year, the most funds for these purposes were allocated to NSD. When it comes to those for which the least was allocated, the subjects vary, so in 2020 it was True Montenegro, in 2021 SDP, in 2022 Albanian Alternative, and in the first quarter of 2023 Democratic Alliance of Albanians.
Overall, for this period, the most funds were allocated to the NSD, and at least to the Albanian Alternative. It should also be noted that funds for the premises of the Albanian Alternative and the Albanian Coalition Unanimous started to be allocated only in February 2022, and for SD and SDP in November 2021. Also, after the official of this party, Koča Đurišić, was appointed as Acting director of UKID during 2021, and in April 2022 as the Director of that institution, NSD is the only party for which the allocated funds from UKID in 2022 increased compared to those from 2021, while for all other parties, these funds were either reduced or remained the same the same compared to the previous year.
The review of these documents was conducted through the CCE’s programme, supported by the Core Grant regional project SMART Balkans – Civil Society for a Connected Western Balkans. This project is implemented by the Center for the Promotion of Civil Society (CPCD), the Center for Research and Public Policy (CRPM), and the Institute for Democracy and Mediation (IDM), with financial support from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway. The content of the text is the sole responsibility of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of CPCD, CRPM, IDM, or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Norway.
Nikola Đurašević, Programme Assistant