Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro

The head of the prominent Montenegrin watchdog MANS, Vanja Calovic Markovic, on Wednesday alleged one of the parties in the now ruling For the Future of Montenegro coalition used administrators from Serbia in the campaign on social networks for last year's election .

Montenegrin soldiers on the training in a military camp near the town of Danilovgrad. Photo: Montenegrin Government

The Ministry of Defence said it had abandoned the plan to send a platoon of 30 soldiers to Kosovo, announced by the former government, led by the Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS.

Supporters of so-called patriotic organisations in Montenegro protested on Monday in the capital Podgorica against the new government's proposals to change the hotly disputed Freedom of Religion law, erasing all elements opposed by the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church.

Police in front of the Budva municipality building. Photo: Facebook/ Iva Bajkovic

Heavily armed police surrounded the municipal building and arrested the town management. Police used tear gas to disperse citizens protesting around the building.

All three arrests happened at a time of high tension in Montenegro. All over the country, tens of thousands of people are protesting against the new Law on Freedom of Religion, which parliament passed in the last days of 2019, despite being challenged by most of the opposition and by the Serbian Orthodox Church, the main faith group in the country.

The president of the Atlas group, Dusko Knezevic, who is wanted for arrest in Montenegro, is taking the state to an international arbitration court, demanding 500 million euros in compensation, his company said on Friday.

The Montenegrin parliament on Wednesday failed to adopt a law to legalize same-sex unions after deputies from ruling parties representing ethnic minorities voted against it.

Opponents of Montenegrin President Milo Djukanovic protested again in the capital on Saturday, accusing the country's long-time leader of presiding over poverty, a loss of human rights and media freedoms and corruption.

The article recalls that Djukanovic, during the so-called "Yogurt Revolution", with Momir Bulatovic, took power in the smallest Yugoslav republic, and focused on a close alliance with Slobodan Milosevic and Serbia, which Milosevic ruled at that time.

Leaders of the strongest opposition alliance in Montenegro, the URA movement and the Democrats [Demokrate] are heading to Brussels next week to present what they call a plan to overcome the long-lasting political crisis in the country.

The leader of URA, Dritan Abazovic, and the Democrats' chief, Aleksa Becic, will meet the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Johannes Hahn, early next week.