*Marko is 29 years old, he was born in Montenegro, but in recent years he has been living in Belgrade, where he has a wife and a child, he declares himself a Serb from Montenegro - and that is not his real name.
His real name has been changed in the text because Marko has had both Serbian and Montenegrin citizenship for the past few years, which violates Montenegrin law.
"I decided that after studying in Belgrade, I would stay, live and work in Serbia, and a few years later I would start a family... That's why I did it."
Montenegro does not allow its citizens to have dual citizenship with Serbia, except in cases where it was acquired before independence in 2006.
"This is because Montenegro, conditionally speaking, has a large diaspora - a large number of citizens of both Serbia and Montenegro are of origin, have jobs and real estate in both countries," says Zlatko Vujović from the Montenegrin Center for Monitoring and Research (CEMI), for BBC in Serbian.
And if they all voted in the elections, their outcome could be different from the result voted for by 600.000 people who actually live in Montenegro, adds Daliborka Uljarević from the Center for Civic Education.
"If you have a system of small numbers - about 540.000 voters - I think it is quite legitimate for small countries like Montenegro to protect themselves in that way," Uljarević told the BBC in Serbian.
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During that time, the representatives of the Serbs from Montenegro emphasized that the rights of the Serbian community were threatened because of this practice, so that there have been tensions over the issue of dual citizenship for a long time.
This topic has become especially topical before the presidential elections in Montenegro on March 19, where seven candidates will compete, including the current head of state Milo Đukanović.
Milojko Spajić, president of the Europe now movement, the biggest winner of the local elections in 2022, he intended to enter the presidential race, but his candidacy was rejected.
The reason - the problem of Serbian citizenship and residence in Serbia.
In the meantime, several candidates have spoken about who has which citizenship, and the current head of state Milo Đukanović.
The current elections come after several politically tumultuous years, marked by the fall from power of Đukanović's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) - and a quick return to power as a minority partner in Prime Minister Dritan Abazović's government - but also tensions at the national level.
"Unfortunately, too many votes today are based on the national key," Uljarević believes.
"The largest part of the electorate is polarized towards pro-Montenegro or pro-Serbian parties."
About citizenship and life
Although he lives and works in Belgrade, Marko regularly travels to Montenegro, but with a dose of caution.
"I always make sure that I have documents from either Serbia or Montenegro," he says.
"I've heard stories that, if they find documents from both countries at the border, they may revoke your Montenegrin citizenship."
If that happened, he says, he would be "very sorry".
"Because I am a Montenegrin and Montenegro is my country, just as much as Serbia," he points out.
"On the other hand, there are people who have lived in Montenegro for almost 30 years, live and work there and have started families, but they have no way to get citizenship for purely political reasons, because it is estimated that their vote will go to parties that are pro-Serbian oriented. "
One of them is *Milica, who is the same age as Marko and whose name is also not her real name.
She lives and works in Podgorica, and came to Montenegro from Kosovo after the war in 1999.
"This is, therefore, the 24th year since we have been here and our stay has been legalized, but I still do not have Montenegrin citizenship."
What does that mean for her in practice?
"I finished primary and secondary school here, but when I entered the university, I didn't have the right to apply as a Montenegrin student, I had to apply as a foreigner," she says.
"And I didn't, for example, have the right to be on the budget, even though I've been there all my life."
She says that she has had no other problems, but for all those who do not have Montenegrin citizenship, she says that "in principle, they are second-class citizens".
"You don't have the right to vote, to work in state institutions... There are many problems."
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On citizenship and politics
Montenegro gained its independence after a referendum in 2006, when separation from Serbia was voted for by only 0,5 percent of the vote.
The two new states soon began negotiations on numerous issues, including dual citizenships.
Serbia proposed that everyone who wants to get dual citizenship, without renouncing Serbian or Montenegrin citizenship.
"Serbia has no reason to interfere in the political internal affairs of Montenegro". stated in 2008 the then Minister of Internal Affairs of Serbia, Ivica Dačić, today the head of diplomacy.
"Our proposal is first of all aimed at ordinary citizens who have historical ties to one and the other republic," Dacic added.
Jusuf Kalamperović, then Minister of Police of Montenegro, replied that in that case his country could have more than 50 percent of citizens with dual citizenship.
"You know what problems it brings, many more problems than benefits", Kalamperović stated.
Both sides claimed that because of the agreement, they could not waive the Law on Citizenship, and the negotiations reached an impasse.
"During those negotiations, it was announced that from the restoration of independence until the end of 2008, around 35.000 citizens of Montenegro illegally acquired Serbian citizenship," states political scientist Vujović. referring to the 2021 CEMI report.
"Estimates say that this figure goes up to 80.000 people, and a huge number of them reside in both Montenegro and Serbia".
The reasons for taking dual citizenship, he points out, can be various - free treatment and education in Serbia and Montenegro, as well as lower real estate taxes.
"Before the local elections, we compared the voter lists of Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and came to the conclusion that 10 percent of voters from Herceg Novi were registered in Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina," says Vujović.
"It even happened that people had triple suffrage and could vote in all three countries."
As another problem, he points out the organized bringing of voters from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the elections in Montenegro - because they have dual citizenships.
"They don't follow the campaign, they were paid and brought only to support a certain option and influence the electoral will in Montenegro."
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On citizenship and tensions
The issue of dual citizenship has been (one of) the sources of tension in Montenegro for years.
This was especially pronounced during 2021, when the then prime minister was Zdravko Krivokapić announced that the conditions for obtaining Montenegrin citizenship will be eased.
According to the current to the law, the condition for that is ten years of permanent residence in Montenegro, with five temporary.
Krivokapić proposed that those ten years be reduced to five years of permanent and five temporary residence, which, as he claimed, would most help refugees who arrived after the wars of the 1990s.
The opposition called it "political engineering" with the intention of changing the voter list, while the pro-Serbian Democratic Front (DF) emphasized that this decision should have been introduced earlier.
Dritan Abazović, Prime Minister of Montenegro, resigned in mid-February 2022 stated that the decision to facilitate admission to Montenegrin citizenship will be annulled because it did not receive the consent of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
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There were also tensions before the upcoming presidential elections.
At the end of January, the Presidency of the Movement Europe chose their leader Milojko Spajić as a candidate in the pre-election race.
It is a movement led by Spajić and Jakov Milatović, former ministers in the first government after the DPS was replaced, while Zdravko Krivokapić was prime minister.
However, the media soon started to talk about Spajić's residence in Serbia, which he denied, stating that he does not understand "where such an obsession with Serbia comes from".
The State Election Commission (SEC) of Montenegro then asked the Republic Election Commission (REC) of Serbia for information on whether Spajić really resides in Serbia.
The Serbian police confirmed this, and the Montenegrin media then announced that Spajić also has Serbian citizenship.
Spajić told the MINA agency that he really had Serbian citizenship, where he submitted a request for deregistration, but not residence in Serbia, because he deregistered it.
"I have been a Montenegrin citizen all my life and I have all the formal and legal requirements to be a candidate for the president of Montenegro, because I was born in this country and I have had a registered residence in Montenegro for more than ten years", Spajić stated.
However, SEC rejected his candidacy, so that instead of him, Milatović was now running for Europe.
One of his opponents in the elections will be Andrija Mandic, the leader of the New Serbian Democracy, who previously often stated that he would never renounce his Serbian citizenship.
Mandić stated at the beginning of March that it was citizenship obtained in a legal way, as well as that Montenegro is his home country.
When asked who he will support during the match between Serbia and Montenegro in the qualification for the European Football Championship, he answered - for Montenegro.
On citizenship and voting
In the midst of all this, Montenegro is preparing for presidential elections, and extraordinary parliamentary elections could follow very soon.
Jovan Đonović, a 35-year-old economist from Podgorica, says that politics is currently an everyday topic in their lives.
However, his impression is that there is less talk about the issue of citizenship than before.
"I think that in the elections, people will look more at who offered a better economic solution, that they will not only go with the national issue," he believes.
"This could be the last wave of those national divisions... To each his own, on the basis of those senseless divisions, some have ruled here for 30 years."
Tamara Srdanović from Novi Sad, who has been living in Podgorica for nine years, where she got married and had a child, still thinks that most votes will be based on the national key.
"Probably 30 or 40 percent, I think that's really represented."
According to him, the issue of citizenship is the number one issue in Montenegro.
"Of course it's important... You don't have the right to vote, you can't work in the public sector and it's been like that for years... It's a handicap."
Political analyst Vujović also believes that "more and more" voting is based on the national key, while Uljarević says that this problem cannot be "solved overnight, quickly and easily".
"All election campaigns since 2006 have had these things," he says.
"Those who were in power at that time remind everyone who was against the restoration of independence that they were on that side, which strengthened the belief of some people that they do not feel like citizens of the same order as the rest.
"On the other side is the influence of those who use polarization in Montenegro for the sake of expanding their political influence."
During that time, Milica continued her daily life in Podgorica.
When asked if she would give up her Serbian citizenship, she says that she is not thinking about it at all.
"There is also a loophole in the law - you can give up Serbian, get Montenegrin, then apply again for Serbian and Serbia will give you citizenship," she says.
"But at one point I stopped dealing with it, and right now it doesn't matter to me that I have it... I've definitely gotten used to it, I'll see what and how if I need it.
"Now I have the privilege of not going to the polls," he adds with a smile.
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