An analysis by the Centre for Civic Education (CCE) shows that, during eight special sessions of the Parliament of Montenegro held between December 2023 and June 2026, for which questions and answers are available in written form on the Parliament’s website, a total of 612 parliamentary questions were recorded. These questions were submitted by MPs from 13 parliamentary groups and political groupings. The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) parliamentary group submitted the highest number of questions – 206, or 33.7% of the total – while, among Government members, Minister of the Interior Danilo Šaranović received by far the most questions – 94, or 15.4%, meaning that almost every sixth recorded question was addressed to him.
Security, healthcare and public finances at the forefront of MPs’ attention
The distribution of questions shows that MPs’ attention was not evenly spread across Government members. Šaranović received 94 questions, as many as 40 more than Minister of Health Vojislav Šimun, who received 54, and 48 more than Minister of Finance Novica Vuković, who received 46. They were followed by Minister of Education, Science and Innovation Anđela Jakšić-Stojanović with 34 questions and Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management Vladimir Joković with 25.
The five most frequently questioned Government members received a total of 253 questions, accounting for 41.3% of all recorded questions. This concentration indicates that security, healthcare and public finances were among the areas attracting the greatest parliamentary attention during the eight sessions covered by the analysis.
However, the number of questions addressed to an individual Government member cannot automatically be interpreted as an indicator of the success or failure of their work. Rather, it primarily reflects the ministries and issues towards which parliamentary groups directed their political and institutional attention.
DPS submitted one third of all questions
By parliamentary group, the DPS accounted for by far the largest number of questions, with 206, representing one third of all recorded questions (33.7%). It was followed by the Democrats with 84 questions (13.7%), New Serb Democracy (NSD) with 62 (10.1%), Europe Now Movement (PES) with 58 (9.5%), Bosniak Party (BS) with 54 (8.8%), Civic Movement URA with 37 (6%), Social Democrats/European Alliance (SD/ES) with 35 (5.7%), and SNP-CIVIS with 28 questions (4.6%).
The Independent Parliamentary Group submitted 16 questions (2.6%), the Democratic People’s Party (DNP) 10 (1.6%), the Albanian Alliance and the joint DUA-HGI parliamentary group eight each (1.3%), while the Albanian Forum submitted six questions (1%).
The differences among parliamentary groups are significant, but the absolute numbers should also be considered in relation to the size of each group, the number of its members, and the period during which it operated in a particular composition. Therefore, the number of questions reflects the representation of individual parliamentary groups in this analysis but does not constitute a measure of their overall parliamentary work, nor does it, in itself, allow for an assessment of the quality of their parliamentary engagement.
Who asked the most questions?
At the individual level, during the eight sessions for which data are available on the Parliament’s website, Slađana Kaluđerović submitted the highest number of questions – 15.
Fourteen questions each were submitted by nine DPS MPs and three Democrats: Aleksandra Despotović, Aleksandra Vuković-Kuč, Sonja Popović, Anđela Vojinović, Duško Stjepović, Jevto Eraković, Mihailo Anđušić, Momčilo Leković, Nikola Milović, Nikola Rakočević, Oskar Huter and Zoja Bojanić Lalović, while Boris Mugoša, Abaz Dizdarević and Albin Ćeman submitted 13 questions each.
Among the NSD MPs, the most active were Bojana Pićan, Jelena Božović, Vaso Obradović and Velimir Đoković, with 10 questions each, while in PES, Boris Pejović, Branka Marković and Miloš Pižurica submitted the highest number, with six questions each. In the BS, Kenana Strujić-Harbić led with 11 questions; in the Civic Movement URA, Miloš Konatar with 12; and in SD/ES, Boris Mugoša with 13. All eight questions from the Albanian Alliance were submitted by Ilir Çapuni, while Adrijan Vuksanović submitted six of the eight questions from the DUA-HGI parliamentary group. In the Albanian Forum, Nikola Camaj submitted four of the group’s six questions. Within the Special Parliamentary Group, Radinka Ćinćur was the most active with eight questions, while Vladislav Bojović led within the DNP with four.
Šaranović far ahead of other Government members
For the eight analysed sessions for which questions are available on the Parliament’s website, Šaranović, Šimun, Vuković, Jakšić-Stojanović and Joković were followed by Nik Gjeloshaj and Bojan Božović with 24 questions each, Tamara Vujović and Slaven Radunović with 23 each, Filip Radulović with 22, Maida Gorčević with 21, Simonida Kordić with 20 and Damjan Ćulafić with 19.
Dragan Krapović received 15 questions and Momo Koprivica 13, while Admir Šahmanović, Majda Adžović, Filip Ivanović, Naida Nišić and Vladimir Martinović received 12 each. Aleksa Bečić, Saša Mujović and Maja Vukićević received 11 each; Andrej Milović and Damir Gutić 10 each; Maraš Dukaj nine; Ervin Ibrahimović eight; Janko Odović seven; Dragoslav Šćekić six; Ernad Suljević five; and Budimir Aleksić four. Mirsad Azemović and Milutin Butorović received one question each, while in one case the recipient was identified only as the “relevant ministry”, without naming a specific Government member.
Šaranović was most frequently questioned by the Democrats, while the DPS submitted the highest number of questions to Vojislav Šimun and Novica Vuković.
Parliamentary questions as an instrument of oversight and political communication
The number of questions addressed to an individual Government member does not indicate whether their work was subject to criticism or support. Opposition parliamentary groups more frequently use parliamentary questions to challenge Government decisions, seek explanations and raise issues of accountability, while parliamentary majority groups use some of their questions to provide ministers with an opportunity to present the activities, results and planned measures of their respective ministries.
However, this distinction is not absolute. Questions from majority MPs may contain criticism or requests for specific action, just as opposition questions may be informative or aimed at resolving a particular local issue.
The analysis points to a pronounced concentration of parliamentary attention on a limited number of ministries and Government members, with security, healthcare and public finances emerging as the areas most frequently raised in direct exchanges between MPs and Government members.
CCE notes that these findings do not constitute an assessment of the performance of individual ministers, nor of the overall work of MPs and parliamentary groups. Rather, they provide an overview of who used the parliamentary question mechanism, to what extent, and which Government members and ministries received the greatest parliamentary attention during the eight sessions covered by the analysis.
Nikola Obradović, Programme Associate