One of the leaders of the coalition For the Future of Montenegro, Milan Knežević, stated in Belgrade that Serbs in Montenegro have yet to fight for what is important to them, such as the status of the Serbian language and dual citizenship.
In a show on Hepi TV, in which he appeared with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, Knežević said that the population census in Montenegro, conducted in 2023, showed that Serbs are a "conclusive linguistic majority" in the country.
"We need to fight for the standardization of the Serbian language as an official language in the Constitution, and equal to Montenegrin, because the census showed that we are a convincing linguistic majority. And of course we want to regulate dual citizenship with Serbia," said Knežević.
He said that a large number of citizens in Montenegro want to have dual citizenship - both Montenegrin and Serbian, but that a restrictive law prevents them from doing so.
"If you live in Montenegro and obtain Serbian citizenship, you automatically lose your Montenegrin citizenship. On the other hand, hundreds of thousands of people who now live in Serbia and are originally from Montenegro have lost their Montenegrin citizenship. And only those Serbs from Montenegro who live in Serbia did not have the right to vote in the referendum on Montenegrin independence in 2006. And everyone else who left Montenegro 40 years before the referendum did," he said.
Knežević said that his child was born in Belgrade and does not have the right to Montenegrin citizenship, even though both parents are Montenegrin citizens. He stated that his child received Serbian citizenship with the help of Vučić.
"If it weren't for Vučić's intervention to obtain a certificate of citizenship for my son, I would have had to smuggle him as an emigrant from Syria to enter Montenegro," said Knežević.
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