Podgorica, April 3, 2023
Photo: novosti.rs
Milo Đukanović, the long-term president of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro, who has served several terms as both president and prime minister of the country since 1991, was voted out of office in the presidential elections held on March 19.
According to novosti.rs, he received 41.1% of the vote, while his opponent Jakov Milatović, who only entered the political scene in late 2020, took home 58.9%.
“Although he was absolutely convinced of his victory, Đukanović is stepping down from the political scene of Montenegro after more than three decades,” writes the Serbian outlet.
Đukanović’s ruling coalition previously failed to take a majority of Parliamentary seats for the first time in 30 years in August 2020.
An important factor was Đukanović’s attempt to seize property away from the Serbian Orthodox Church, whose Metropolis of Montenegro is the largest religious confession in the country. Under him, the government adopted the law “On Freedom of Religion and Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities” in late 2019, which sparked protests throughout 2020.
Đukanović was also an open supporter of the schismatic “Montenegrin Orthodox Church.” Unlike in Ukraine, the MOC is numerically insignificant, with just a few people and a few unofficial chapels.
For months on end, hundreds of thousands of faithful Orthodox Christians and others gathered in prayerful processions in defense of their holy sites. Clergy and hierarchs were persecuted and prosecuted, including His Eminence Metropolitan of Amfilohije of blessed memory. The momentum in defense of the Church helped lower the status of Đukanović’s government that summer.
At the end of that year, the new Parliament adopted amendments to the law that made all religious bodies equal in the eyes of the law, thus ending the persecution against the Church. Though Đukanović vetoed the amendments, they were adopted a second time by Parliament, which meant, according to the constitution, the President had to sign them into law.
However, Church-state relations have remained tense in the Balkan country. After several years of struggle and tense negotiations, the Serbian Orthodox Church, represented by His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije, and the state of Montenegro, represented by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, finally signed the Fundamental Agreement on the Church’s rights and responsibilities in relation to the state in August 2022.
However, the government fell in a no-confidence vote soon after, which was initiated by those who remained from Đukanović’s party.
His Eminence Metropolitan Joanikije, the head of the Montenegrin Metropolis, sent a congratulatory message to the new president today.
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