(Podgorica, 17 June 2012) – Since the start of the mass citizen protests on 21 January 2012 – whose aim has been to resolve crucial problems confronting citizens in the socio-economic sphere – the parliament has only convened for a total of 122 hours and 5 minutes. That is a little more than 15 days of full-time, 8 hour work. At the same time, the average citizen works every month 20 days of full time, 8 hour work (that is 90 working days in the period since January 21).
During this time, the parliament hasn’t done a single thing to contribute to relieving the situation of Montenegrin citizens, nor even attempted to remove some of the multiple impositions that they have to pay each month. Not only has parliament failed to advance the socio-economic position of the citizens, but it has also increased the burdens imposed on already impoverished citizens including the “euro by euro” tax that was imposed on electricity meters, as well as telephone and cable TV subscriptions.
In addition to the shameful “euro by euro” tax that was recently adopted by the parliament, this body has failed to use its supervisory powers to force the Regulatory Agency for Electricity (RAE) to ensure that its methodology for calculating utility prices is in accordance with the law, instead of allowing citizens to subsidize kickbacks to domestic and foreign tycoons and criminals.
In the past week, the organizers of the protests and the Citizens’ Front have begun to collect signatures for initiatives before the Constitutional Court in order to ask for an annulment of the “euro by euro” law, as well as the current methodology employed for the calculation of electricity prices – i.e. essentially calling on the parliament to correct the mistakes made by the Assembly of Montenegro that have contributed to the adverse financial circumstances that so many citizens find themselves in.
At the same time, in the Parliament there were no plenary sessions, only three sittings of working bodies, lasting a total of 4 hours and that didn’t address the actual problems of the country’s citizens. Only 17 MPs participated in the work of these bodies out of the 81 who sit in the Assembly.
These facts demonstrate that the parliament is not a place that makes decisions for the benefit of citizens, but instead in the interest of tycoons, and in such a captured institution there is no space for honest MPs. We applaud the declarations of all the honorable MPs who’ve announced that they have nothing to do in this Assembly since they cannot influence the decisions being made and who have announced they are willing to participate in a parliamentary boycott if the majority of the opposition’s MPs unite around such a plan of action.
Montenegro’s citizens no longer have time to wait, since with every day their material situation is getting worse and the total debts of Montenegro that they and their children and grandchildren will be returning are increasing at a breakneck pace. For this reason, we are once again calling all honest MPs to immediately leave the parliament and thus prevent the legalization of the government’s decisions that are directly contrary to the interests of all citizens.
