Montenegro: ruling party could lose power after 30 years

Written by David Fletcher 03 Sep 2020
Montenegro: ruling party could lose power after 30 years

Montenegro’s election campaign was dominated by divisions over the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church. There have been months of protests since a law was adopted in December allowing the state to seize religious assets when their historical ownership cannot be proved. Consequently the Church urged people to vote against the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS). The DPS secured 35% of votes in a tight and bitterly-contested parliamentary election, its worst result since the country won independence from Serbia. Official results show the pro-Serbian opposition alliance on 32.5%, meaning that it could feasibly form a government if it can reach consensus with Montenegro's other two opposition parties. That would see the DPS lose control of power in the Balkan nation for the first time in 30 years. The leader of the pro-Serbian coalition, Zdravko Krivokapic, told supporters, ‘The regime has fallen’. The majority of Montenegrins are members of the Church, while President Djukanovic and his party are accused of having links to organised crime and running the country as an autocracy.

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