The Montenegrin parliament has again passed the law rejected by dictator Djukanovic

The Montenegrin Assembly, with 41 votes, again approved amendments to the “Law on Freedom of Religion” in the absence of nationalist opposition.

In addition, the Chairman of the Parliament, Aleksa Becic, called the pressure of the Constitutional Court on the legislative branch “scandalous.”

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As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, deputies of the ruling coalition, which brought together representatives of the forces opposing Montenegrin dictator Milo Djukanojic, re-approved amendments to the Law on Freedom of Religion, which no longer allow the state to take away the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In addition, they adopted amendments to the “Law on the Rehabilitation of Credit Institutions” and the “Law on the Fiscalization of Trade in Goods and Services.” Previously, all these amendments were rejected by President Djukanovic.

It is characteristic that the now opposition faction of the Democratic Party of Socialists - the Serbian and Russophobic pro-Western nationalist party of Djukanovic, as last time, was not present at the meeting. But this time it was not possible to disrupt the voting on the bills, since all the deputies of the parliamentary majority were in place and this time confirmed their mandates.

At the same time, the Chairman of the Assembly, Aleksa Becic, told the people’s representatives that the day before he received a “scandalous message” from the Chairman of the Constitutional Court, in which he was asked that the Assembly submit a report on the procedure for assessing the constitutionality of the formation of the Committee on Comprehensive Reform of Electoral Legislation in the next 15 days. And today he received a similar document, according to which he must provide explanations within 30 days regarding proposals to amend parliamentary procedure. According to the speaker, Djukanovic’s faithful ally, the chairman of the Constitutional Court, Desanka Lopicic, is behind this.

  Aleksa Becic shows MPs a “scandalous message”.

“Theoretically, it is possible that Djukanovic will not sign the laws again, but he is politically experienced and will not agree to this,” Prime Minister of Montenegro Zdravko Krivokapic commented on the situation. – If we evaluate the actions of the Constitutional Court, we can rightfully say that this is another party cell (“Democratic Party of Socialists – ed.), because where politics dominates, there is no legality. The Constitutional Court should act in accordance with its powers, and not blackmail the Assembly, demanding something impossible to be provided within 15 days.”

After the Assembly adopted the first version of the law on December 28, 2019, mass protests began in Montenegro, since in this form it threatened to confiscate 650 Orthodox shrines of the Serbian Orthodox Church in favor of Western-controlled “autocephalous” schismatics - in fact, it was a repeat of the scenario implemented in Ukraine .

Montenegro separated from Serbia in 2006 under the pretext of “faster integration into the EU”, but has still not received EU membership. In 2017, against the will of the population, Montenegro was included in NATO by the pro-Western ruling elite without a referendum. Now about 30% of the population of this former part of Yugoslavia call themselves ethnic Serbs.