It's good, we all survived these holidays, both us and Montenegro. It is also good that only the old Jesus Christ was born again, and not some new Jan Palah. Who would not send only himself to the other world by protesting self-immolation. But also all inventory in the Montenegrin parliament, including deputies.
It is bad, however, that we entered the third decade of the twenty-first century discussing the divisions that Saint Peter somehow managed to bridge at the end of the eighteenth century. Unfortunately, none of his successors - neither spiritual nor secular - managed to strengthen those bridges and make them permanent.
Some because they couldn't, and some didn't even want to. They were more suited to temporary pontoons, designed to last only until the end of their reign...
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The latest model of the pontoon bridge, which was offered by the current government, collapsed before it could be used.
On the very day when Prime Minister DM sent "the last warning not to incite riots in Montenegro" to Metropolitan Amfilohi, who is not on the Depees side of the bridge this time.
He received such an answer from the metropolitan that now he does not know what to do with the metropolitan, nor with the answer in a hundred thousand copies.
The others don't seem to be doing any better either. The Director of the Police Administration tweets "thanks to the Montenegrin Littoral Metropolitanate for its contribution to ensure that the gatherings of citizens and processions pass without incident".
In the same vein, the National Security Council, but much more extensively and clearly, emphasizes "subversive activities aimed at endangering the constitutional and democratic values of Montenegro."
However, it did not clarify whether it blames only the domestic media and the neighboring country for the said subversion, or whether the Metropolis is also on the list of suspects. Only - for reasons obvious on the streets - she must not be told that yet...
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Instead of the beginning of coexistence and trust from the Prime Minister's Christmas card, the new law led to the renewal of old divisions throughout Montenegro. And not pontoon ones, but permanent ones.
They are so dangerous that now even the Metropolitan is no longer able to see the consequences of his response to the Prime Minister's last warning and the earlier ones that came from a higher place. Nor does he know what to do with so many believers and admirers of the Serbian Church on the streets.
The fact that he thinned out the walks to twice a week will not reduce the risk, as a rule, sparks at protests do not come from within... And for those who decide to spark, it is enough to do it once. And it doesn't really matter if he does it on Tuesday or Thursday...
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No matter how this latest splitting of Montenegro ends, the two most severe long-term consequences are already obvious. And they were caused by the three-decade cooperation of two masters, secular and spiritual. Regardless of the fact that this time the collaboration may not have come about on the basis of a political agreement, but on the basis of the law of physics on merged courts.
First, Milo Đukanović provided himself and his party with four more years of power. Absolute or coalition - it will not matter, because in that case Montenegro will not be able to recover even for the next forty years.
If he even survives within these limits until then...
Second, but no less disastrous for Montenegro as a multinational state - all and not only certain nations that will occasionally rotate on the throne, most importantly - the struggle of Metropolitan Amfilohi of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the leaders of the Serbian parties against a wrongly passed law can end in the total ghettoization of Serbs in Montenegro. .
And without any conflicts with the others, so peacefully that the Serbian people will not even feel it... Nor will it be useful to comfort them with good intentions...
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The fact that after the first half the spiritual team is leading against the secular team by at least two points is not a consolation either. Because Depees is a master of the game with divisions, especially national ones.
For the first 15 years, he won in a Serbian jersey, encouraged Serbianness in education and culture, helped the Serbian Church to expand its influence and its property...
The euphoria of the Serbian fans prevented them from seeing in time that forcing the two state-like creations has nothing to do with national emotions, but with very concrete affairs.
Depees managed to build the perfect infrastructure for corruption, crime and unlimited power. As soon as he noticed 15 years ago that this power could be threatened, he turned to Montenegro as a cover for its preservation and strengthening. Unfortunately, he did it again with the sole, exactly as he tried to exterminate it in the early nineties. When he managed to relax the rights of the majority people in Montenegro in the long term.
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All this went to the hands of Metropolitan Amfilohi of the Serbian Orthodox Church for three whole decades. In the first part directly, in the second as collateral consequences. The more Depees tried to resurrect that part of the Montenegrin region for whose repose he was responsible for, the stronger was the unity of the metropolitan's supporters.
Protests have been concreted to the extent that organizers and demonstrators are only interested in one problem, and that is theirs. Thus said unity, instead of being a method towards a wider goal, became an end in itself. As if Serbs should live next to others, not with others in Montenegro.
In the short term, this may preserve the existing safe votes for the Serbian parties, with a re-spill between the Democratic Front and the Democrats.
DF currently looks like a loser, because it missed not only the political, but also the church address. However, the mistake he has been making for a long time by asking Vučić for support for the fight against Đukanović has not yet become so obvious to the Serbian electorate.
However, the fact that he made the wrong choice between Metropolitan Amfilohi and Patriarch Irinej at a critical moment will prove to be a finger in the eye of the autochthonous Serbs.
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The Democrats can benefit from that, they stood by the Metropolitan on the street on Christmas Day and Christmas Day. But if they were of my advice, they wouldn't be so proud of it.
What they will eventually take from the DF on the Serbian Orthodox bridge, the recipient is not worth the wealth they will lose on the joint bridge. Once, when the passions have calmed down a little, they will realize the gravity of their mistake. But the elections are not for one year, but this year. And the collective boycott of the opposition no longer seems realistic...
Yes, the church law was made upside down, and adopted indiscriminately. And that's all they should have said, the way URA, Demos and some other parties did. The leadership of a party that is ethnically mixed has no voter mandate to stand with any religious leader. Especially not with Metropolitan Amfilohi, neither because of him personally, nor because of the politics of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
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The Democrats did not experience such a rise because they arose from a Serbian party, but precisely because they took a different path. Among their voters have long been Montenegrins, who for the metropolitan of the SPC are just "Đilas's bastards."
They were also voted by Bosniaks, who since the war are only "unbaptized" and "Turks" for some bishops. And the Albanians whom a bishop once clearly and loudly called "Shiptars", accusing them of being the creators of the law that divides the "Orthodox brothers"...
Not everyone in Montenegro is prone to collective amnesia. The fact that the metropolitan organizes peaceful protests is not for the order, peace is in his job description and work assignments...
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And whether the end of the protest will be as peaceful as the beginning - it does not depend only on the spiritual master. But more of the worldly one, which caused them.
He didn't know what consequences "rounding off the Montenegrin identity by solving the church question" would have? Possibly, but he had to know.
He was away only for holidays, and the Law was prepared for four years...
PS The Christmas greeting of Prime Minister DM showed how wisely it was prepared. The law should be seen as a new beginning of coexistence and trust, not division... I have been looking at these ten days and I don't see coexistence and trust, but I don't even glimpse hope that they are like that occurrences in Montenegro under this kind of government is at all possible...
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