Vujović: The election of Živković as head of the DPS will stabilize the party

The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) opted for a candidate who showed that he can be a point of convergence of different structures within the political party itself, political analyst, assistant professor at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Podgorica, Zlatko Vujović, told Vreme.

In the intra-party elections of today's largest opposition party, held on Sunday, January 28, the current acting president of the Montenegrin DPS, Danijel Živković, was elected, and Aleksandra Vuković-Kuć, Abaz Dizdarević, Ivan Vuković and Jevto Eraković were elected vice-presidents.

"His mandate as acting president was relatively successful. "She stopped the downward trend and in a way consolidated herself at around 20 percent of the support of the electorate," explains Vujović.

He says that we are talking about a man who emerged from the party, who went from the lowest level of youth to the highest - president, and in some way was accepted by other structures of the party.

"It's a bit strange to have a presidential election in a single-candidate party, but I'd say it wasn't a bad choice at a time when the party was facing a continuous decline in support and a latent risk of splitting, so a full-fledged election with multiple factions would deepen divisions that exist within the DPS and may have resulted in a split. "He was obviously acceptable to the largest number, and that's how I interpret the absence of some other candidacies," said Vujović for "Vreme".

Consequences of losing power

Danijel Živković was elected acting president of DPS in April 2023, after the previous party president Milo Đukanović resigned to that position.

Đukanović, who headed the DPS for 25 years, resigned after the defeat in the second round of the presidential elections in Montenegro from the candidate of the "Europe Now" movement Jakov Milatović in April 2023.

Thus, the DPS, which ruled Montenegro for decades, was removed from all positions of power, after losing power in the parliamentary elections in 2020.

"Although in the ideal model it did not fully satisfy what would be called full democratic intra-party elections, they were democratic, but they were not competitive, and in that sense DPS was the most far behind all other parties on the Montenegrin political scene," explains Vujović.

This is supported by the fact that several candidates were registered for the position of vice president of the party.

"The fact that the members of the party came out, that they voted and gave a certain degree of legitimacy, shows that in this way the DPS rounded off one part of the transformation, that is, the change of the national leadership," says the interlocutor of "Vremen".

On the influence of Djukanovic

Regarding the influence of the former president of the party for many decades on the election and future moves of the new leadership, Vujović says: "I think that the new leadership will be independent for the most part, which does not mean that some former officials will not have a certain influence." However, as with any institutionalization, when you have people who cover a certain position, they draw legitimacy, but also functional power from that position, so the influence that former officials have at this moment will rapidly decrease. It will be held if former officials financially support the party. If this is not the case, their impact will be minimal."

He adds that Živković is not recognized as someone from Đukanović's inner circle, but as someone who is dedicated to the party and has good relations with other cadres within the party.

Who is Danijel Živković?

Danijel Živković came to the position of acting president of the DPS from the position of head of the club of deputies of that party in the Montenegrin parliament.

He was born on August 15, 1987 in Pljevlja. He graduated from the Faculty of Law, and built his political career as a member of the DPS in Pljevlja, from where he moved to the position of deputy in the Parliament of Montenegro in 2017.

In addition to the above, as a long-term member of the DPS, he held various party positions - from the president of the Youth Council of the DPS Pljevlja to a member of the Main Board of the DPS of Montenegro.