The Montenegrin parliament, in a repeat vote, passed on January 20 a crucial Law on Religious Freedoms which President Milo Djukanovic refused to sign a month ago, now forcing him to either concede and sign or violate the constitution.
The original law drafted by Djukanovic early last year triggered a wave of protests across Montenegro and ended his DPS party’s 30-year-old parliamentary rule, the longest in Europe. His initial idea, which cost him dearly, was to enact the law to strip the powerful Serbian Orthodox Church of its vast assets across the tiny Adriatic littoral country.
The church rose up and for the most of the last year held masses and processions across the country of some 630,000 people led by the late Archbishop Amfilohije, one of the most influential figures in the Serbian Orthodox Church, who paid with his life for snubbing the COVID-19 pandemic rules of social distancing and wearing protection masks during the protests and rites. The Serbian Orthodox Church th