The two leading protagonists in the contemporary Montenegrin political-religious drama, President Đukanović and Metropolitan Amfilohije, represent two sides of the same distorted Montenegrin mirror. They are the Janus face of contemporary Montenegrin reality. The two have been zealously comparing and supplementing political recipes for staying in power and pacifying followers for thirty years.
While in the last few years they are fighting each other and waiting to see who will blink first, the citizens of Montenegro are barely making ends meet. The approaching bankruptcy of the state, which is wisely kept quiet, a high unemployment rate, endemic corruption, state-owned companies as family latifundia, weak institutions and a somewhat instrumentalized non-governmental sector, a constant outflow of young and professional people, as well as numerous soup kitchens are some of the characteristics of this "successful Balkan stories".
Of course, although it is not advisable to run with congratulations, we should praise what is praiseworthy: a relatively synchronized and successful response to the initial wave of the global pandemic. However, the pandemic, as in other countries, proved to be a useful framework for various party promotions, pre-election campaigns of the government and the opposition (which in Montenegro includes the SPC), as well as ruling by decrees to the detriment of the institutions of parliamentary democracy. The pandemic has clearly marked the scope and depth of the crisis whose creators and managers sit on the secular and, at least as far as the Orthodox population is concerned, spiritual throne of Montenegro.
In contrast to his counterpart in the clerical uniform, Đukanović rhetorically evolved from the nationalism and war-mongering tone of the 1990s, through somewhat softer phraseology about European integration, to the current position, which is characterized by the use of sovereignist ideological and political discourse, with admixtures of Montenegrin nationalism .
Three decades ago, Đukanović, as a political "trainee" and admirer of the "ordinary bank rat" (thanks to the late Koča Popović for this great description of Slobodan Milošević's character), scolded his rivals for "pathological Serbophobia" and claimed that the aggression against Dubrovnik was purposeful, and "that any contrary point of view is treasonous". Before the referendum on independence, he promised that "in four years there will not be a single unemployed citizen in this country". Over time, he identified the country with himself and the party he leads, and earned the qualification of an autocrat. However, since he had many assistants in each of his phases, it is important to say that the flexible Montenegrin Britva was and remains an autocrat who relies on some sort of consensus.
At this moment, the question is how long President Đukanović will be able to count on the consensus that currently keeps him in power. The threat to the new church of the national Montenegrins is one of the tests of strength for his coalition, and he seems convinced that he can once again mobilize the sovereignist electorate with him. The president, however, forgets that this voting body is not homogeneous, and that, apart from a few sinecure exceptions, he sees himself as a burden and a nuisance, rather than a solution to the current crisis. This despite the fact that the political appetite of Metropolitan Amfilohi represents the strongest challenge facing Montenegro since the restoration of independence.
Metropolitan Amfilohije, unlike Đukanović, remained consistent with the messages he sent in the distant 1990s. His words have not changed since the time when he claimed that Montenegrin sovereignists should be "nailed to the Vizier's bridge". Violence was, and remains, the leitmotif of many of the Metropolitan's addresses to the faithful and to those poisoned by "satanic seeds" and "satanic ideology".
These days, for the umpteenth time, he concluded that he has nothing to lose by calling for violence, so in a speech on May 19, he announced that Đukanović "preaches the Satanic Church and wants to turn Montenegro into a demonic, satanic community." Regardless of what you think of Đukanović, it is not difficult to imagine what kind of sentiment among his followers Amfilohije is counting on when he warns that the government is "turning again to the ungodly, satanic, anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-Peter, anti-Svetosava, anti-Petronjegos path." Because who could be honorable and honest against God and for Satan, and with that once again against God, and then also Christ, Peter, Saint Sava and Njegos? Such an amount of anti-good and pro-evil simply cannot be sustained.
God, says the oft-repeated saying, is merciful. Amphilochius, the servant of God, most certainly did not. Let's say, he has no problem calling for the shedding of living flesh and cursing "three times and three thousand times" anyone who renounces Mother Russia or ordering that members of the LGBTQ population, some of whom are certainly of the Orthodox faith, should be cut down and thrown into the fire. He also has no problem embracing war profiteers and criminals: when there is no Arkan and his para-heroes to be hired for fraternal and orderly purposes, there is Duke Šešelj, a primitive bully, warmonger and convicted war criminal, to be given something that is called the "Order of the Golden Image of Saint Peter the Second Lovcen Secret Seer". Although easy to speak harshly, Amfilohije, on the other hand, did not distinguish himself by condemning his fellow bishops in the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church, certain Pachomi, Kačavenda and Filaret, who were accused of pedophilia by a letter, while they were building golden palaces for themselves ( Kačavenda) or took pictures with a machine gun next to tanks directed at civilians (Filaret). With all that, Amfilohi's political ambitions can be overlooked only by someone who is blinded by the cheap glitter of the Order of the Lovcen Secret Seer.
If Amfilochius' rhetoric is examined more closely, his inability to articulate the needs of Orthodox believers in the 21st century becomes clear. Archaic language full of repetitions, more papal than words whose sole purpose is to frighten ("brozomora", "God-hatred", "fraternal hatred"), insisting on the conflict between good and evil, constantly reminding all Serbs that they are on the verge of extermination - all this points to non-compliance to see Montenegro as a community whose only sustainable future is in pluralism, in all its religious, non-religious, gender, national and linguistic nuances. In the absence of articulation, what remains is manipulation: walking the remains of saints and demonizing anyone who does not fit into the vision of a single-minded Orthodox paradise. In this, it must be admitted, he was somewhat effective: Andrija Mandić, Nebojša Medojević and Marko Milačić seem to have been successfully programmed, readily competing in the speech of intolerance and the elevation of Orthodoxy (of course, "Serbian") to the level of "family values", which of course it implies that Islam, Catholicism, Judaism or, God forbid, atheism cannot be. However, you can't fool all the people all the time, even if you wear a beard and a mantle.
No matter how controversial the Law on Freedom of Religion is, Amphilochius cannot be considered any kind of defender of the holy, because what is truly sacred to him - politics, spreading hatred and embracing war criminals - is most certainly not what most people who attend litias consider their presence to be. dams. Therefore, the dilemma of "Đukanović or Amfilohije" is false, because they are both under the same burden: the nineties, the war and everything that followed. The coming to power of political scarecrows like the DF leader would be tantamount to a disaster, similar to what the US is going through with Trump.
The fallen Montenegrin democracy can be straightened only with the help of the untainted bearers of the political center, who stand for social justice, tolerance and compromise as a model for solving political disagreements. That, let's be honest, is not an easy task at all. It includes, if at all possible, a fundamental structural reform of the DPS, as well as a progressive reform within the Metropolis of Montenegro and the Littoral. The church must finally separate from the state and give up its pretensions to undermine the government, and the state must stop being an extended arm of the ruling party. Given the low probability of changes from above, the responsibility of voters and believers in Montenegro is enormous. Power rests in the people, and it must not be invested in warfare, real or metaphorical, at someone else's expense.
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