Xinhua: Youthful Prime Minister heads new Montenegrin government

Xinhua: Youthful Prime Minister heads new Montenegrin government

December 29, 2010

With the formation of a new government on Wednesday, Montenegro's new Prime Minister Igor Luksic said his country would seek further Euro-Atlantic integration and a better standard of living for citizens.

Luksic replaces veteran politician Milo Djukanovic, a former president of Montenegro who announced his resignation as prime minister after his party, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) took the largest number of votes during the recent election campaign.

Luksic, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, will head a cabinet where he will be the youngest member. Luksic was born in 1976. The coalition government will have two deputy prime ministers and 15 ministries. Luksic's Cabinet won support on Wednesday from 46 deputies in the 81-member assembly. Opposition lawmakers voted no and demanded an early election.

The new Montenegrin prime minister said he his government would maintain the goals of the previous governments, in particular with respect to Montenegro's accession to the European Union and membership of NATO. Luksic said Montenegro would seek to coordinate its foreign policies to the EU's. He called Montenegro's recognition of Kosovo, the Serbian province that unilaterally declared independence in 2008, as a "politically mature decision."

Luksic is seen as a close ally of Djukanovic, who had ruled Montenegro for 20 years. Djukanovic resigned on December 21 after Montenegro achieved its EU candidate status.