Protests in Montenegro
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The consequences of a seemingly purely religious event in Montenegro will be tangible in the geopolitical scenario in all the Balkans.
There are major political unrest in resort Montenegro. All because of a church issue. In 2006, Montenegro left the union with Serbia and became a sovereign state, but its church did not receive autonomy and remained under the control of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
A third of the SOC believers in Montenegro continue to consider themselves Serbs. Because of this, independence supporters, including Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic, accuse the Serbian Orthodox Church of advancing Belgrade’s political interests and seeking to return the country to a larger neighbor. Doesn’t it look like anything?
And so in the SOC they chose a new metropolitan for Montenegro and his enthronement turned into a confrontation.
Skirmishes
Part of the population of Montenegro perceived the visit of the Serbian patriarch and the appointment of a metropolitan by him as an attempt to expand its influence in the country.
On the eve of enthronement, barricades appeared on the roads in Cetinje. Several thousand protesters blocked the road leading to Cetinje from the capital of Montenegro, Podgorica, along which Patriarch Porfiry and Metropolitan Ioanniki were to enter the city. As a result, they had to be taken to the monastery by helicopter.
The angry crowd threw stones at the police and demolished the fences around the monastery, which had been heavily guarded in a few days. The demonstrators shouted This is not Serbia! and Long live Montenegro!
At some point, the police used tear gas. Four people received minor injuries.
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EPA
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Political subtext
The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro has never hesitated to promote the theses of the “Serbian peace”, even refusing to recognize the Montenegrins as a separate people from the Serbs.
In response, in 2019, the Montenegrin parliament adopted a law on freedom of religion, according to which the Serbian Orthodox Church was to lose its exclusive position in the Montenegrin state. The law allowed the state to lay claim to church property. The leaders of the SOC in Montenegro organized a powerful movement against “persecution of the church.”
For several months, with the open active support of Belgrade and more covert support from Moscow, a political force was formed on the basis of Orthodox protests that was able to gain more votes in the parliamentary elections on August 30, 2020 and, together with new faces from the pro-European public sector, who for many years opposed corruption and authoritarian power, led by Milo Djukanovic, to form the “government of the apostles.”
Serbian President Vucic did not even hide his satisfaction after the enthronement of the Metropolitan of the SOC in Cetinje, contrary to the demands of the patriots.
Speaking on television on September 5, Vucic congratulated the Montenegrin authorities on this successful operation and said that in recent years Montenegro has been used as a training ground for an attack on Serbia, but this will not happen again.
The well-known Montenegrin publicist Sheki Radoncic believes that the enthronement of the Metropolitan of the SOC is not only an important victory for the “Serbian peace”, but that the first victory of Russia in a NATO member state is even more important.
“Let’s not be naive. According to Porfiry, there are Belgrade and Vucic, and behind them are Moscow, Russia,” says Radoncic.
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