Montenegro Govt Faces No-confidence Vote Over Church Deal

Two of the PM's coalition partner parties have announced a no-confidence vote, after the government signed a disputed 'fundamental agreement' with the Serbian Orthodox Church.

The signing of the fundamental agreement between Montenegro’s government and the Serbian Orthodox Church. Photo: Government of Montenegro

A number of government coalition parties on Wednesday announced a no-confidence motion in Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic’s government, after it signed a “fundamental agreement” with the Serbian Orthodox Church, SPC, the largest religious community in the country.

Abazovic signed the agreement with Church Patriarch Porfirije on Wednesday in Podgorica, stressing that all religious communities should have equal rights.

“The process of negotiating a fundamental agreement took too long, but now this issue is finally closed in a civilized way. The government does everything with the desire to build a society of justice and equality,” Abazovic said in a press release.

“In this way, we are sending a message of peace and tolerance and the country should turn over a new page,” he added.

Montenegro has signed similar “fundamental agreements” with smaller religious communities: with the Catholic Church in 2011, and with the Islamic and Jewish communities in 2012. But no agreement has been reached with the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Patriarch Porfirije said that Montenegro and SPC both needed the agreement, stressing it was in accordance with the Montenegrin constitution.

“The Church didn’t want anything more than any citizen of Montenegro related to the topic of religion, nor did we have ambitions to achieve more than any other religious community. I believe all citizens are happy because of this agreement,” Patriarch Porfirije told the media.

According to the agreement, the Serbian Church doesn’t need government permission for relocating cultural heritage it owns but must obey the Law of Cultural Heritage Protection.

The government is obliged to register all Orthodox churches and monasteries as belonging to the SPC and also start the restitution process of Church property nationalized or confiscated by the Communist authorities after World War Two.

According to the agreement, the state cannot give permission for building Orthodox churches without the approval of the SPC, while Orthodox religious education may be regulated in public schools.

While pro-Serbian parties praised the signing of the agreement, the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS and Social Democratic Party called for early elections, saying the document was signed without a wide consensus.

“We will initiate a no-confidence motion in parliament and call for early elections. This agreement is against the constitution of Montenegro and will be suspended immediately after the election of a new government,” the DPS said.

The signing of the agreement was also criticized by some NGOs, who accused the government of failing to conduct a dialogue in preparing the agreement.

“The government started with non-transparency and continued by feigning dialogue and ignoring different opinions. [It was] the grand finale of the clericalization of Montenegro,” the Center for Democratic Transition, CDT, an NGO, said in a press release.

On July 21, the government formed a six-member expert team to analyze the fundamental agreement draft, but some members of the civic sector quit, as they opposed one of the government’s proposed members. On August 1, the government announced it would sign the agreement without any changes.