Europe's last dictator is close to losing power
Discriminatory laws directed against canonical Orthodoxy will backfire on the Montenegrin regime during the upcoming parliamentary elections on August 30.
The director of the Progressive Policy Foundation and the founder of the Balkanist project writes about this, the PolitNavigator correspondent reports in Nezavisimaya Gazeta. ru Oleg Bondarenko.
“The permanent ruler of Montenegro, Djukanovic, has led the republic for more than 30 years, remaining the longest-serving politician in Europe (and not Alexander Lukashenko, as someone might think). Alternating between the posts of president and prime minister, he became the de facto founding father of the current Montenegrin statehood, who can only be compared in terms of his time in power with King Nikola I Petrovich, who ruled for 58 years,” notes Bondarenko.
He points out that over these decades, “Djukanovic has gone from “the last communist of Yugoslavia” and “Great Serbian patriot” to a convinced liberal and devoted supporter of Euro-Atlantic integration.”
The expert recalls that last year Montenegro adopted a law allowing the confiscation of the property of the Montenegrin-Litovian Metropolis - a diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church, after which protests began and do not subside in the country in the format of weekly religious processions, in which tens of thousands of citizens throughout the country participate .
“The confrontation with the church reached the point that eventually the Montenegrin Metropolitan Amfilohije himself, who had previously been on good terms with Djukanovic, appealed to believers to unanimously come to the parliamentary elections on August 30 to vote against “the atheists and the false laws that they accept.” He admitted that in his 82 years he had never participated in elections, but this time he intends to vote for the shrines of God,” the author reports.
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Referring to sociological data, the political scientist points out that for the first time in a long time, the opposition, united in the bloc “For the Future of Montenegro”, led by Professor Zdravko Krivokapic, can count on 25% of the vote, which “together with the democratic opposition (about 16%) and a number of others smaller opposition parties could pose an insurmountable obstacle to the continuation of Europe's longest political rule."
“Djukanovic’s main electoral resource - support from a number of influential and numerous Montenegrin clans, which he helped in his time, may fail him this time. Because in traditional Montenegrin society, the position of the church may be more important than the past merits of a political benefactor,” Bondarenko sums up.
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