

Protest against the Freedom of Religious Law, Podgorica, December 26, 2019. Photo: BIRN

The Montenegrin parliament passed the controversial Freedom of Religious Law amid chaotic scenes on Friday, despite fierce objections from the Serbian Orthodox Church, its supporters and pro-Serbian opposition parties.

The law was supported by the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, the ethnic minority Albanian, Bosniak and Croats parties and one opposition party, the Social Democratic Party.

Trying to prevent the vote, MPs from the main pro-Serbian opposition Democratic Front, DF, rushed at the Speaker of Parliament, some saying they were “ready to die” for the Church. Police then intervened and detained the MPs, after which parliament passed the vote.

Police detained a total of 22 people over the incident, including all 18 DF lawmakers, 15 of whom were later released.

“We are ready to die for our church and that’s what we are demonstrating tonight,” opposition leader Andrija Mandic said during the incident.

Serbian Orthodox bishops, priests and their followers are saying a prayer in Podgorica after their attempts to move beyond the police cordon in order to attend a liturgy were quashed. Debates on the law on religious freedom are continuing on in parliament. pic.twitter.com/zSuQZN3nUk — Balkan Insight (@BalkanInsight) December 26, 2019

The controversial law, which sparked nationwide protests and road blockades on Thursday and Friday, includes a register of all religious objects and sites that authorities say were owned by the independent kingdom of Montenegro before it became part of the Serb-dominated Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918, later renamed Yugoslavia.

Under the law, religious communities will have to provide clear evidence of ownership in order to retain their properties, a provision that the Serbian Church says is designed to allow the government to strip it of its holdings.

The government denies harbouring any designs on Church assets, but opposition leader Mandic told MPs they risked bringing a curse on themselves if they endorsed the bill.

He said that if parliament approved the law, the opposition was ready to fight with force. “I invite all my war friends from 1991 and 1999. to be ready. You can count on the worst,” he said, referencing the dates of wars in former Yugoslavia.

While the angry debate was taking place inside parliament, hundreds of protesters rallied outside in the capital, Podgorica, calling on the government to withdraw the legislation.

Police cordoned off the city centre and parliament as MPs were debating the law and stopped the protesters reaching the parliament building.

The rally was headed by bishops and Serbian Orthodox priests who held an open-air liturgy that lasted until Friday morning.

Meanwhile, people gathered in other cities and towns across Montenegro, protesting against the law and blocking roads. Some media and social networks users reported that police used force in response, pepper-spraying protesters and arresting them. The Ministry of Interior had not responded to these claims by the time of publication.

During Thursday’s debate on the law, Prime Minister Dusko Markovic met with Metropolitan Amfilohije, the leading Serbian Orthodox bishop in Montenegro, to “clarify the good intention of the law”.

But, after the meeting and while addressing the protesting crowd in Podgorica, Metropolitan Amfilohije said he had called on the PM to withdraw the legislation or postpone the vote till after the Christmas holidays, which the Prime Minister had rejected.

Amfilohije called on the protesters in Podgorica to stay in front of the parliament until the authorities provided written guarantees that they would postpone a decision on the law.

Among more than 200 amendments submitted to the law, the opposition also presented those presented by the Serbian Church – but they were all rejected by majority votes late on Thursday night.

Outside the country, Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic said on Thursday in the town of Jagodina that Serbia would fight for the rights of the Serbian people in Montenegro, “because we have only one country and one people, the Serbian people and Serbia”, he was quoted saying by the daily Politika.