The rebellious Montenegro was painted in the colors of the Serbian tricolor
Orthodox protests in Montenegro have taken new forms. After police dispersed with tear gas a group of young people defending graffiti in the colors of the old Montenegrin and current Serbian flags in one of the districts of the capital Podgorica, the same tricolors began to appear throughout the country.
Tricolors appear on walls, bus stops, park benches, and highway tunnels. The authorities are trying to quickly paint over the graffiti, but young people are defending them. Activists hang flags on tall trees, bake cakes with the tricolor, wear patriotic T-shirts and post photos on social networks.
The symbol of protest was the funny little man Papa Smurf, whose coloring resembles the tricolor so hated by the Montenegrin authorities.
The symbol of the protests in Montenegro was Papa Smurf, whose coloring resembles the tricolor so hated by the Montenegrin authorities
In Beran, residents staged another flash mob. They took to the streets in medical masks when the country's President Milo Djukanovic, the main inspirer of the anti-Orthodox law “on freedom of religion”, which caused mass protests throughout Montenegro, arrived in the city. “The city stinks” is how opponents of the Djukanovic regime called their protest action.
The administration took sanctions against a school teacher in the city of Bar, Rada Visnjic, after she asked her students to draw a tricolor.
“Our school is not a place where open or hidden political activity will be demonstrated,” the director of the educational institution, Biljana Vukmanovic, told reporters.
The teacher's behavior was condemned by the Liberal Party Bar Association.
“She sacrificed her childhood on the altar of her pathological nationalism and hatred. Every enlightened, reasonable person is obliged to raise his voice against this,” said Liberal Alliance MP Stanka Vucinic.
Opposition Montenegrin politician Marko Milacic spoke in defense of the teacher.
“Yesterday you taught students the colors of ethics. You knew you'd lose wages because of it, but freedom is worth much more. The child's soul shines with the same colors of justice as divine truth. Children's hands hold a stolen state flag. The school is not ready for this level of freedom.
Teach us freedom, teacher of us all,” Milacic wrote on his Facebook.
The protest was supported by students across the country. They post photos of school boards on social networks with Orthodox slogans written on them.
Berane loves to keep prayers
Let us remind you that mass protests have been taking place in Montenegro for a month now after the country’s parliament passed a law that threatens the confiscation of 650 Orthodox shrines of the Serbian Church in favor of “autocephalous” schismatics controlled by the ruling regime - in fact, we are talking about a repetition 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.
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