After three decades of rule by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), an opposition coalition came to power through competitive elections in 2020. A period of instability in the governing coalition led to fresh elections in 2023, yielding a new parliamentary majority and government. Montenegro is home to dynamic media and civil society sectors, and civil liberties are generally respected, but corruption and dysfunction in politics and the judicial system remain persistent problems.

• After months of intraparty tensions, President Jakov Milatović left the ruling Europe Now Movement of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić in February. The two leaders backed rival lists in September local council elections in Podgorica, though by December both lists had joined a coalition government in the city. Concurrent local elections in Kotor remained unresolved at year’s end.
• In July, Prime Minister Spajić significantly expanded his government to include members of the pro-Serb coalition For the Future of Montenegro and the Bosniak Party, creating a 32-member cabinet that would serve to push reform legislation through the 81-seat parliament. The arrangement threatened to exacerbate a pattern in which the government had enacted laws through expedited procedures, with little public debate or parliamentary oversight.
• Law enforcement authorities continued to uncover online correspondence and other evidence linking officials from the era of DPS rule to organized crime. In April, former special prosecutor Milivoje Katnić and former assistant police director Zoran Lazović were arrested and charged with abuse of power and the creation of a criminal organization. Separately that month, the director of the Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, Jelena Perović, was arrested for alleged financial malfeasance; an indictment issued in November accused her illegally inflating her compensation and those of others.
• In December, the parliament’s constitutional committee found that three of the six sitting judges on the seven-seat Constitutional Court had met the conditions for retirement and began a process for selecting replacements. The move touched off a political crisis, with President Milatović and the parliamentary opposition—led by the DPS—accusing the governing coalition of violating constitutional procedure, which calls for the court itself to notify the parliament when any of its members have met the conditions for retirement. The opposition withdrew from the parliament’s electoral reform committee and began boycotting parliament sessions, and the dispute was ongoing at year’s end.

This report has been abridged for Freedom in the World 2025 due to ongoing budget constraints. Freedom in the World is entirely funded by nongovernmental sources such as private foundations, corporations, and individuals like you. Please consider making a donation to support future editions of this vital resource.

For additional background information, see last year’s full report.