European Montenegro
The European Montenegro was the ruling political alliance in Montenegro headed by Milo Đukanović's Democratic Party of Socialists.
Following the internal turmoil within the DPS during late 1996 and early 1997 when the party's most prominent members Đukanović and Momir Bulatović bitterly fought behind the scenes for the control of the party, Đukanović emerged as the clear winner of the year-long power struggle. Under his leadership, DPS began entering pre-election alliances with smaller parties under the coalition banner that had a different name ahead of each parliamentary election. Besides the leading DPS, it was also consisted of two main political parties, the SDP and the LPCG. The coalition was formally dissolved in 2016. The first version of the coalition was formed ahead of the 1998 parliamentary elections in Montenegro under the name So that we live better. Before the 2001 elections the coalition was rebranded as Victory is Montenegro's. Then, before the 2002 elections the coalition was known as List for European Montenegro, and finally before the 2006 elections it became the Coalition for European Montenegro.
History
1998 elections
In 1998 DPS forged a wide alliance in an attempt to compete with the newly created pro-Milošević Socialist People's Party of Montenegro led at the time by former DPS leader Momir Bulatović.Đukanović-led DPS called for an alliance between anti-Milošević parties, stating that Milošević's political pursuits were leading FR Yugoslavia into ruin. It made a coalition with the Social Democratic Party of Montenegro that supported outright independence and the People's Party of Montenegro that wanted Montenegro to remain in a state with Serbia. DPS's own position at the time was that Montenegro and Serbia should be in a single unified state, but they opposed Milošević's rule.
The 1998 parliamentary election on May 31 essentially turned into another showdown between Đukanović and Bulatović over a single issueSlobodan Milošević. Đukanović's coalition won, seizing 42 of 78 total parliamentary seats. Those 42 seats were then divided up three ways according to the coalition agreement: DPS received 32 seats while its coalition partners NS and SDP got 5 each.
For DPS, it meant less actual seats belonging to the party than after the previous election when they got 45 of 71 total seats alone by themselves. However, they were now ruling through a coalition, which benefited the party's image in other ways as it created a perception of openness and pluralism.
As far as SDP was concerned getting 5 seats was a remarkable successthe party entered parliament for the first time in its history and could now influence the republic's official policy, neither of which they could dream of had they entered the election alone.
From NS perspective, getting 5 seats was not a big reason for celebration since the party had a distinct voting base at the time, meaning they would've surely got more had they entered alone, but they were now in a ruling coalition, in position to influence official policy and were happy to be there as long as DPS supported the idea of a unified state with Serbia.
Though never stable and cohesive, during its first year, the government formed by the "So that we live better" coalition was able to internally agree on basic matters and reach the minimum consensus. Big political test came in March 1999 when NATO military alliance started bombing FR Yugoslavia. Despite Montenegro being spared from the heaviest bombing, SDP and even fringe parts of DPS capitalized on the bombing to aggressively push the idea of an independent Montenegrin state. This political discourse, however, never made it into any of the government's official policy. In fall 1999, initiated by Đukanović, Montenegro drafted a document called and sent it to Belgrade. In an atmosphere when Đukanović-Milošević relations were strained to a maximum, the platform called for major changes in the division of governing responsibilities within FR Yugoslavia. Though still officially seeing itself within a state with Serbia, Đukanović-led Montenegro wanted many things changed and redefined.
However, after the overthrow of Slobodan Milošević in October 2000, contrary to expectations, DPS made a complete turnaround and now suddenly started pushing for complete independence thus completely abandoning the platform they wrote just a year earlier. Consequently, the mainstream of the ruling coalition started to openly support the idea of an independent Montenegro and this became an official government policy, all of which caused huge international outrage and outright opposition from the European Union.
In the resulting crisis, the pro-unity People's Party left the government dissatisfied with DPS' turnaround. Subsequently, inner quarrels between DPS CG on one side and LSCG on the other came out over filling in NS CG's vacant occupation in the government. NS subsequently joined the newly formed pro-Yugoslavian Together for Yugoslavia of Predrag Bulatović of the reformed SNP, which based itself on countering this alliance's newfound independent ideology, emphasizing the necessity of keeping the state together with Serbia. Additionally, LSCG also withdrew from the government, on the allegations that DPS was not sincere in decisions to make Montenegro independent and that it was stalling it. The rump DPS-SDP of the once greater alliance lost control over the government. New elections were scheduled in 2001.