Koprivica: The request to introduce the Serbian language as an official language in Montenegro is completely legitimate

Deputy Prime Minister for the Political System, Justice and Anti-Corruption and Democratic Montenegro official Momo Koprivica said that the request to introduce the Serbian language as an official language in Montenegro is completely legitimate.

"It is not a language spoken only by one nation, but also by members of other nations. Serbian is the language of those people who are on their own in Montenegro, who are constitutive. But I would add that I am an advocate of dialogue. The issue of language, like other issues, requires dialogue, and extremists from any side in Montenegro, and prompters from outside will not be helpful," said Koprivica, RTCG reports.

He added that they must not "repeat the mistakes of the DPS, which is the absence of sensibility and dialogue".

"Social agreement and dialogue can lead us to solutions that are on the line of equality," said Koprivica.

He also said that professors from Nikšić and Herceg Novi were persecuted because they defended the Serbian language with the Ijekavian pronunciation.

"Just like in Finland, which has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, equality, we can come through dialogue that the official languages ​​here are Montenegrin and Serbian with the Ijekavian pronunciation," said Koprivica.

He says that he was written as a Serb in the census, but that the narrative of the media from the region, which, he says, pointed out that there was an "increase in the number of Serbs" in Montenegro, implying that it was influenced by the services, is devastating.

"I reject such stories about operational activity as destructive. Montenegro is my mother country, both my grave and my cradle. I have no reserve country," Koprivica said.

He said that Montenegro is a civil state.

According to the results of the population census held in December of last year, most of the inhabitants of Montenegro speak the Serbian language, 43,18 percent of them (269.307).

It is followed by the Montenegrin language spoken by 34,52 percent (215.299), and in third place is Bosnian, with 6,97 percent (43.470), announced the Administration for Statistics (Monstat).

In the Constitution, it is written that the Montenegrin language is official in Montenegro, as well as that the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets are equal. Serbian, Bosnian, Albanian and Croatian languages ​​are also in official use.