“Despite his busy schedule, the prime minister wanted to meet with President Radev during his official visit to Montenegro,” a Montenegrin government spokesperson told POLITICO.
But Spajić’s earlier meeting “lasted three minutes longer than planned,” while the Bulgarian delegation “left the government building after four minutes of waiting,” the spokesperson said.
The meeting would have been held in Villa Gorica, the government’s usual venue for meetings with foreign heads of state, but the facility was already being used by the president, the spokesperson added.
“It is completely natural for the head of state to refuse a meeting for which the host is not ready,” a spokesperson for Radev told Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik. Radev’s camp did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment.
During his two-day visit, Radev voiced Bulgaria’s support for Montenegro’s joining the European Union.
“Bulgaria values extremely highly the excellent relations with Montenegro, our constructive partnership, common goals and shared values within the framework of NATO, and I believe that very soon, also within the framework of the EU,” he said at a press conference with Milatović.
According to local media, it’s not the first time Spajić has failed to show up for a meeting with a foreign dignitary. In March he snubbed Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković, who waited half an hour for an audience before leaving, Montenegrin newspaper Dan reported.
Spajić, a 36-year-old ex-Goldman Sachs banker, was elected last October and is Europe’s youngest prime minister.
