A monument to Amfiloch, voices to the "actors".

The decision of the majority of minority parties to leave yesterday's Government session at which the construction of a monument to the former metropolitan of Montenegrin-coast Amfilohi in Berane was approved will not result in their leaving the executive power, nor will it lead to its instability.

Nikoleta Đukanović, an assistant professor at the University of "Donja Gorica", commented that for "Vijesti" the ministers from the Bosniak Party (BS) and the Albanian Forum (AF) coalition left the Government session at which the executive authority gave the Municipality of Berane permission to erect monument to the late head of the Montenegrin Litoral Metropolis (MCP) of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

Those parties said that their representatives made such a move, among other things, because they believe that the construction of a monument to Amfiloch would not contribute to multi-religious harmony in Montenegro and that it is too early to make a decision about it.

Đukanović says that both the decision of the executive power and the reaction of some of the minority parties are a show for the citizens, staged because of the upcoming elections. Polling stations will be held in Podgorica and Kotor on September 29, Budva on November 17, and voting in Berane is also on the horizon.

"The government, which is apparently led by currents from the former DF (Democratic Front), is sending a clear message to its voters, who are traditionally oriented towards the policies of the SPC. The government collectively, as before, agrees with all the initiatives of the DF and SPC in order to ensure its stability. On the other hand, even this kind of act cannot influence the minority parties to give up their positions in the Government", the interviewee claims.

She says that with yesterday's decision, minority parties are sending their voters a message that they do not agree with the favoring of a religious group, but that they do not have the strength or the will to really protect the interests of that electorate.

"Certainly, we will be able to watch their reactions in the coming days, but I doubt, compared to the previous actions, that this can lead to the instability of the Government", states Đukanović.

BS and AF did not answer the questions of "Vijesti" about their next steps, and whether their ministers will attend the next session of the executive power.

According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", Deputy Prime Minister Nik Đeljošaj (AF) spoke at the beginning of the session yesterday, during the amendment of the agenda, saying that he did not support the inclusion of the item on the Amfilohi monument, that it should have been discussed by the ruling majority first, and that some of the statements of the former head of the MCP are disputed, especially those about minority peoples... After that, the Minister of Social Welfare Damir Gutić (BS) took the floor, saying that such points should be nominated with an agreement.

A source from the session said that Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Bečić (Democrat) replied that he did not see anything controversial in the proposal to supplement the agenda, nor in the initiative to erect a monument. The interlocutor said that then, when the agenda was supplemented, the ministers from BS and AF left the session without announcement or explanation.

The BS, which has five representatives in the Government (Ervin Ibrahimović, Admir Šahmanović, Gutić, Mirsad Azemović and Ernad Suljević), announced yesterday that their ministers left the session because they did not agree that the issue of monuments should be on its agenda Amphilochia.

They stated that they understand the religious attitude of some citizens of Montenegro towards the late metropolitan, but that they believe that "in a secular and civil Montenegro, and in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious environment such as Berane, these topics should be approached with much more sensitivity".

"Especially bearing in mind that, due to, to put it mildly, the controversial statements that Amfilohije Radović had about Muslims and other religious and ethnic communities in Montenegro, erecting a memorial will not contribute to multi-religious and multi-ethnic harmony in Berane and Montenegro", they said from BS -a.

AF, the coalition that has two representatives (Đeljošaj and Maraš Dukaj) in Prime Minister Milojko Spajić's cabinet (Movement Europe now), said yesterday that their ministers left the session for formal and substantive reasons. As formal, they stated, among other things, that the material submitted to the executive power for consideration was incomplete and disorderly, and as essential - that the former metropolitan "sowed hatred by calling Albanians, Bosniaks and Muslims, but also Montenegrins, who as he did not recognize the nation".

"He expressed and spread hatred towards the West and democratic states and societies, and towards our neighbors, and supported the most backward and retrograde states and regimes. He spoke negatively not only of national minorities, but also of all other minorities. He praised convicted war criminals and downplayed their crimes. It is not without reason that in every democratic society, it is a rule and regulation that it takes time to erect a monument to anyone, because everyone's work is properly appreciated only with a historical distance", stated the AF.

They added that the proposal contradicts the coalition agreement, which, they reminded, provided for coordination within the ruling majority "on every issue that divides us".

"When the regulations, the agreement, the customs, and the tradition, and the previous relationship within the ruling coalition were ignored for reasons of daily politics, there was nothing left but to leave the session, and that will not be the only decision," they said from the AF.

Amfilohije died at the end of October 2020, after being the head of the MCP for almost three decades. That period was marked by his many controversial statements, for which he was harshly criticized by a part of the Montenegrin public. He said, among other things, that Montenegrins are "communist scum", that Montenegro was born "in Tito's (Josip Broz) Jajce", that "the Poturica investigation is a significant historical event" and that in this sense "it is terrible to kill people". but that "even more terrible is the spiritual death that those false people, with false faith, sow around them"...

He also threatened with curses those who were in favor of demolishing the church in Rumija or the baptistery in Prevlaka, held a funeral for the Government of Serbia while Aleksandar Vučić was at its head, threatened a curse for recognizing Kosovo's independence... He later softened some of his statements, and for some he said he regretted saying them.

The request for the construction of a monument to Amfilohi was submitted in January by the Municipality of Berane, where the main constituents of the government at that time were the Democrats and the parties of the former DF. The Ministry of Culture rejected him on August 21, and a few days ago the Diocese of Budimlja-Niššić ruled that the department did not recognize the former metropolitan "as a meritorious figure in the recent history of Montenegro."

The day before yesterday, the Minister of Culture Tamara Vujović (Democrat) annulled the decision of the department she heads, which rejected the request from Beran "due to an omission", and said that she would forward the request to the Government. She explained that the Ministry, according to the Law on Monuments, cannot give consent for the erection of a monument to a person whose death has not passed 20 years ago.

Speaking about yesterday's move by the Government, Nikoleta Đukanović says that she is particularly concerned that it can, according to her, only disrupt the multi-ethnic and multi-religious harmony in Montenegro.

"After all, with all the explanations for this decision, we forget the work of Amfilohi and the SPC in strengthening divisions, spreading hatred, labeling certain parts of society and groups as inadequate and unwelcome, not to mention the values ​​they imposed on their believers, which are not based on on healthy and democratic ideas", she notes.

The non-governmental organizations Action for Human Rights, the Center for Civic Education and ANIMA announced yesterday that they were surprised by the effective reaction of the Ministry of Culture, which sent the proposal to the Government, adding that "the obviously poor pre-election rating in Podgorica makes it seem like the late Amfilohi should be pulled for a handful of votes." .

"The monument-sign is controversial because the metropolitan deepened divisions in the Montenegrin democratic society by criticizing the nation, denying LGBTIQ persons, barren women, but also by glorifying the Chetnik movement and war criminals from the nineties, as well as other controversial statements," they assessed in a joint statement.

Bečić is satisfied, the European Union criticizes, DPS is silent

Deputy Prime Minister Bečić, who presided over yesterday's session because Spajić was in Brussels, announced that Amfilohi's role goes beyond the boundaries of church and theological issues, because "he was a bridge between different eras, cultures and traditions, dedicated to the restoration of spiritual values ​​and the preservation of the soul of Montenegro ".

"Just as during the adoption of the new just Law on Freedom of Religion in the Assembly, this time as well, I had the honor of presiding over the session of the Government of Montenegro where the proposal of the Minister of Culture and Media was adopted..." he said.

The representative of the European Union, Amina Cikotić, wrote on the "Iks" network that she is sure that the leader of BS and the Deputy Prime Minister Ervin Ibrahimović "will defiantly, as Bosniaks in Montenegro do, leave the Government, not just the session".

"If, by some chance, you don't do that, which I don't believe can happen, then the least that's left is to sue the government like the former minister (of the interior, Danilo) Saranović, and continue to sit comfortably in your well-furnished armchairs." , she stated.

MP and leader of the Democratic People's Party Milan Knežević announced, reacting to BS messages in which that party criticizes Amfilohi: "Then what should we say because the madrasa in Tuzi is named after Mehmed the Second Conqueror...".

"Whose army occupied these areas, committed genocide, destroyed churches, cut off Christian heads, impaled them, took a toll in blood... Or was it all done for the sake of multi-ethnic harmony and future European integration", he wrote on "Iks".

Yesterday's decision of the Government passed without reaction from the strongest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS).