In February 2019, protests began in Montenegro against President Milo Đukanović, Prime Minister Duško Marković, and the government led by the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which has been in power since the introduction of multi-party system in 1990. The anti-government protests have been organized by the civil sector of the Montenegrin society, concurrently with the protests in the neighboring Serbia, that had similar goals. The protests failed in mid-2019. Involved in corruption affairs within the government and the ruling DPS remain in their offices.

Background

Allegations of corruption

In 2015, the investigative journalists' network

OCCRP The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories through ...

named Montenegro's long-time president and Prime Minister Milo Đukanović "Person of the Year in Organized Crime"; five years prior the British daily The Independent placed him on a list of the world's top 20 richest leaders, describing the source of his wealth as "mysterious". Đukanović denies most of the claims about his wealth. In 2016, Vice President Svetozar Marović of Đukanović's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was arrested in connection to a long-running corruption case concerning his hometown of Budva; the Montenegrin prosecutor's office labeled him as "head of Budva criminal group," which he later admitted in court.

The "Atlas" and "Envelope" affairs

In mid-January, a

video clip Video clips refer to mostly short videos, most of the time called memes, which are short videos of silly jokes and funny clips, most of the time coming from movies or any entertainment videos such as YouTube. The term is also used more loosely to ...

from 2016 surfaced in which President Đukanovićs former ally, businessman

Duško Knežević Duško Knežević (Montenegrin Cyrillic: Душко Кнежевић) is the founder and president of the board of directors oAtlas Group Corporation (AGC) a financial group based in Montenegro consisting of companies with interests in banks in Se ...

, chairman of the Montenegro-based

Atlas Group The Atlas Group, (), is a Pakistani conglomerate company based in Karachi, Pakistan and founded in 1962.Mayor of Podgorica Mayor of Podgorica ( srp, Gradonačelnik Podgorice / Градоначелник Подгорице) is the head of the City of Podgorica (capital of Montenegro). He acts on behalf of the City, and performs an executive function in the City of Podg ...

and high-ranked DPS member, Slavoljub Stijepović, an envelope containing what Knežević later said was $97,000, to fund a Democratic Party of Socialists parliamentary election campaign. After fleeing to London, Knežević told the media he had been providing such unreported money to the DPS for the past 25 years. Another video Knežević released in February showed a senior Montenegrin Central Bank official asking for a bribe for not sending inspectors into one of Knežević's banks. He has also released documents claiming proof that he helped finance Đukanović's lavish travels abroad and his personal expenses.

Assault on journalist Olivera Lakić

In early May 2018

Olivera Lakić Olivera Lakić is a Montenegrin investigative journalist for the Montenegrin newspaper Vijesti. In May 2018, she was wounded by a gunman after investigating corruption in Montenegro. She became an International Women of Courage Award The Int ...

, an investigative journalist from the Montenegrin daily newspaper ''

Vijesti ''Nezavisni dnevnik Vijesti'' (; English translation: ''News'') is a Montenegrin daily newspaper. The paper is published and managed by an entity called Daily Press d.o.o. - a limited liability company based in Podgorica. The company's ownership ...

'', was shot and wounded in front of her house in Podgorica after she published a series of articles about allegedly corrupt businesses involving top state officials and their families. The identity of the shooter is still unknown.

Accusations of electoral fraud

All 39 opposition MPs (out of 81 in total) are

boycott A boycott is an act of nonviolent, voluntary abstention from a product, person, organization, or country as an expression of protest. It is usually for moral, social, political, or environmental reasons. The purpose of a boycott is to inflict som ...

ing Parliament since the constitution of its current convocation in December 2016, due to claims of electoral fraud at the 2016 parliamentary elections. Opposition started demanding a snap elections and reform of Montenegrin electoral system, as well the electoral laws. The largest opposition subject,

Democratic Front Democratic Front is a name used by political parties and alliances in several countries, such as: *Democratic Front (Albania) *Democratic Front for the Liberation of Angola *Democratic Front (Bosnia and Herzegovina) *Democratic Front (Cyprus) * Demo ...

(DF), decided to end the boycott and return to parliament in December 2017, as did newly formed United Montenegro (UGC). The

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SDP) and the

DEMOS Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

both decided to end the boycott and return to parliament, after poor results in May 2018 local elections, as did Socialist People's Party (SNP) leaving

Democratic Montenegro Democratic Montenegro ( Serbian and Montenegrin: Демократска Црна Гора / ''Demokratska Crna Gora''), also known as the Democrats (Демократе / ''Demokrate''), is a conservative liberal, centrist, populist and pro-Europe ...

(DCG) and United Reform Action (URA), who remained in the boycott with the same demands.

Anti-corruption protests

Protests started after the revelation of footage and documents that appear to implicate top officials in obtaining suspicious funds for the Đukanović' party. The demonstrations were organized by newly formed 97,000 – Odupri se! (''97,000 – Resist!'')

civic group Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.NGO activists and journalists and supported from Montenegrin parliamentary opposition parties:

, United Reform Action,

, Socialist People's Party,

, United Montenegro, as well as Democratic Front alliance (all 39 opposition MPs, out of 81 in total) and newly formed extra-parliamentary parties such as the populist True Montenegro, the liberal the Montenegrin and the left-wing

New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...

. They demanded that the government fold for the formation of a technical government, on the grounds that the conditions for free and transparent elections are not in place, but also for the resignation of President Đukanovic and the chief prosecutor for organized crime, among other people. The leader and the most notable figure of the protests was

Džemal Perović Džemal Perović ( Albanian: Xhemal Peroviq, Montenegrin Cyrillic: Џемал Перовић, born 1956 in Ulcinj, SR Montenegro, SFRY) is Montenegrin civic and political activist, former member of Parliament of Montenegro. After the introductio ...

, a civic activist, former MP of the Liberal Alliance. The political backgrounds of protesters and organisers are diverse, with both left-wing, liberal, moderate, and right-wing factions voicing opposition to the government. As support to the main protests in Podgorica, political parties Democrats,

Demos Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

and the Montenegrin organized a series of separate minor protests led by its leaders

Aleksa Bečić Aleksa Bečić ( Cyrillic: Алекса Бечић; born 4 August 1987) is a Montenegrin politician, current member of Parliament of Montenegro, who served as the president of the Parliament from 2020 until 2022. He is the founder and current pr ...

, Miodrag Lekić and

Vladimir Pavićević Vladimir Pavićević (; born in Kotor in 1978) is a Montenegrin and Serbian political theorist, activist and analyst, former professor at the University of Belgrade and Member of Parliament of Serbia from 2014 until 2016. He was one of the found ...

in other Montenegrin settlements, under the slogan ''" He is done, don't be afraid!"''. On 30 March, all 39 opposition MPs in the 81-seat parliament signed ''“Agreement for the Future”'', proposed by the protest organizers a week before, pledging unity in the fight against the 30-year rule of Đukanović's party. Đukanović,

Marković Marković ( sr-Cyrl, Марковић, ) is a common family name in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Austria and Serbia. It is a patronym of '' Marko'', the local variant of the common European name "Marcus" or "Mark". Marković is the ...

, and other prominent ruling party representatives denied that the country was going through a political crisis, accusing protesters of being financed and organized by the opposition parties and businessman

and that their goal was to destabilize the country. Organizers reject any connection with Knežević, considering him as part of the corrupt Montenegrin system. In mid-April 2019 after he stopped supporting the protests and its organizers, Knežević, in absentia formed his own civic group named "To freedom!", announcing parallel anti-government protests. Protests eventually have failed in mid-2019.

Demands

Organizers accuse President Milo Đukanović of presiding over

poverty Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little income. Poverty can have diverse social, economic, and political causes and effects. When evaluating poverty in ...

, a loss of human rights and

media freedom Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the fundamental principle that communication and expression through various media, including printed and electronic media, especially published materials, should be considered a right to be exerci ...

partocracy Particracy, also known as partitocracy, partitocrazia or partocracy, is a form of government in which the political parties are the primary basis of rule rather than citizens and/or individual politicians. As argued by Italian political scientis ...

and systematic corruption. The organizers' main demands are his resignation, but also of Prime Minister Duško Marković and his cabinet, to form a technical government that would prepare the conditions for free and transparent elections. They seek the resignation also of the State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković, and the chief prosecutor for organized crime Milivoje Katnić, accusing both of ignoring evidence and not prosecuting manifest corruption in the ranks of Đukanović's inner circle. Protesters later demanded irrevocable resignations of the Montenegrin state-owned broadcaster, its council and the director general, accusing them of partiality and ruling-party propaganda.

Electoral Laws Reform Board

In August 2019 the opposition

and United Reform Action parties, although initially boycotted, both decided to participate in the future work of the board for electoral system reform, following the intervention of the European Union Delegation in Montenegro and European Enlargement Commissioner Johannes Hahn, in order to create conditions for holding fair and free elections in 2020. After the

(Democrats) joined the Board, the right-wing

alliance decides to quit, accusing the Democrats of betraying opposition interests. Board eventually failed at the end of December 2019, after the Democrats left the board sessions in the protest to passing the controversial religious law by the Parliament of Montenegro, accusing the ruling party of inciting ethnic hatred and unrest.

Aftermath

As of December 2019 another wave of protest started in Montenegro, against the newly adopted controversial religion law which de jure transfers the ownership of church buildings and estates from the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro to the Montenegrin state, with a portion of 2019 protesters joining the new movement. In its political rights and civil liberties worldwide report in May 2020,

Freedom House Freedom House is a non-profit, majority U.S. government funded organization in Washington, D.C., that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Wil ...

marked Montenegro as a hybrid regime rather than a democracy because of declining standards in governance, justice, elections and media freedom. Freedom House stated that years of increasing state capture, abuse of power and strongman tactics employed by long-term Prime Minister and President Milo Đukanović had tipped country over the edge, and for the first time since 2003, Montenegro was no longer categorised as a democracy. The report emphasised the unequal electoral process, cases of political arrests, negative developments related to judicial independence, media freedoms, as well as a series of unresolved cases of corruption within the DPS-led government. To date, no official proceedings have been initiated against corruption within a DPS-led government, involved in corruption scandals remain in their offices. As of announcing the parliamentary election for August 2020, anti-corruption protest organizers, along with some opposition parties, started a campaign for the boycott of the 2020 parliamentary elections, claiming that the elections would not be held under fair conditions.Perović: Ne izlazite na izbore, najavite opšti bojkot
, Dan online, 20 May 2020

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Montenegrin anti-corruption protests, 2019 Crisis 2019 in Montenegro 2019 protests Protests in Montenegro