Montenegro’s opposition parties have demanded the resignation of parliament speaker Andrija Mandic after a shooting incident involving his nephew, in which two people were injured, daily Vijesti reported.

Earlier in April, Mandic’s nephew, Danilo Mandic, shot and wounded two people in the centre of the capital, Podgorica, using a gun while driving an official parliamentary car.

According to Vijesti, Mandic had appointed his nephew as a bodyguard and allowed him to use the car.

Danilo Mandic was arrested and charged with attempted aggravated murder. According to Vijesti, police said they received a report at 3:40 a.m. on April 19 about a conflict involving several individuals, one of them using a gun.

The police said stated that Danilo Mandic was not authorised to use the gun, and had intercepted the two victims using the parliament’s car before firing several shots at them.

The opposition Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Social Democrats (SD) and United Reform Action (URA) have called for Mandic’s resignation, saying that his links to the shooter have damaged the reputation of the parliament. They also criticised Mandic for appointing his nephew to a state position and allowing him to use the parliament’s car without proper authorisation.

"The responsibility of the speaker of the parliament is even greater that he hired Danilo Mandic, his nephew, who is listed as a person of security interest," DPS leader Danijel Zivkovic said, as quoted by Vijesti.

He added that Mandic was directly responsible for undermining the credibility of state institutions.

"Even greater suspicion surrounds the case due to the involvement of state bodies —the Police Directorate (UP) and the prosecutor's office, because the prosecutor was not present at the scene. Today we have a situation where there is a serious conspiracy of state authorities to cover up the whole case. This is a serious scandal that must be cleaned up," Zivkovic added.

However, the Supreme State Prosecutor’s Office said it was informed about the incident four hours after it occurred, and has been unable to carry out investigative work at the scene. Furthermore, one of the two wounded men fled and did not appear for questioning. The prosecution has already taken testimony from one witness to the shooting.

So far, neither parliament nor the ruling coalition has commented on the incident. 

The Balkan region faces systemic issues tied to gun culture and organised crime, with high rates of gun ownership linked to the wars of the 1990s, which left many weapons in private hands.

In a similar incident, Croatian minister Josip Dabro was forced to resign in 2024 after a video showed him firing from a moving vehicle. 

Danilo Mandic's attacks in Podgorica came just months after a shooting in the Montenegrin city of Cetinje that took the lives of 12 people on January 1.

This was followed by mass protests, calling for the demilitarisation of society, and confiscation and destruction of all illegal and hidden weapons.

The Western Balkans has seen repeated mass shootings in recent years. Aside from two mass killings in Montenegro's Cetinje, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia have faced their own tragedies.

According to the Swiss-based Small Arms Survey, Montenegro has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in Europe, with nearly 245,000 firearms in a population of just over 620,000, although other estimates are somewhat lower.