Montenegro spoiled the mood of the NATO Secretary General - the majority is in favor of leaving the alliance
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg presented a report on the support of the bloc by member countries.
According to the document, the loyalty of Montenegrin residents to the North Atlantic Alliance turned out to be the lowest.
As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, the report presented by Stoltenberg states that at the level of member countries, support for NATO remains high: as in 2019, the majority of citizens would vote in a referendum for their country to remain a member of NATO (62% in 2020 compared to 64% in 2019), and only 11% said they would vote for their country to leave the Alliance.
However, the overall picture is spoiled by the mood of the population of Montenegro. According to the study, when asked “Would you vote for or against your country's membership in NATO?”, 50% of Montenegrin citizens said they would vote to leave NATO, 30% to remain in the Alliance, and 20% are undecided.
The report also says that a majority of people in NATO countries (58%) still view NATO membership as a chance to reduce the likelihood of foreign attack, while only 16% disagree with this statement. As for Montenegro, only 22% of citizens agree with this statement, 45% are against it, and the rest have not formulated an opinion on the issue.
According to the published document, Montenegro spent 73 million euros on defense in 2020, which is 1,72% of Montenegro's gross domestic product or $113 per capita. Compared to 2019, this is seven million euros more. According to earlier statements by the Montenegrin Ministry of Defense, the country's goal is to allocate two percent of GDP to defense by 2024, which is also a NATO requirement.
The new Montenegrin Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic and NATO Secretary General.
“In fact, if a referendum on NATO membership were organized tomorrow with a turnout of 80%, the result would be as follows: for (membership in the Alliance – ed.) – 37,5% and against 62,5%,” commented data from the Stoltenberg report Montenegrin political scientist Igor Damjanovich.
Igor Damyanovich.
At the same time, the new government of Montenegro, which was expected to depart from the pro-Western course, through the mouth of its speakers - Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic and Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic, has recently declared the invariability of the pro-Western course with an orientation towards NATO and the EU.
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