Vujanović: If there had been no conflict with the Serbian Orthodox Church, the DPS would still be in power

Former President of Montenegro and prominent official of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), Filip Vujanović, assessed that the party would still be in power if it had not been for the conflict with the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC).

"I am convinced that DPS would still be in power if it had not been for that conflict. I will tell you that among the people who contacted Metropolitan Amfilohije, I had the most frequent and longest conversations with him. I will probably be someone who will perhaps be the most detailed and very critical of some of his statements and say that they are inappropriate, hasty, insufficiently thought out, that they are not good. But I will also tell you that, despite his very clear verbal appearance, he also expressed reservations. He criticized himself, sometimes backing down from what he said. But that, in an essential sense, he had a layered nature and value that was recognized in Orthodoxy in a very visible way and with great respect," Vujanović said in an interview for Nova M television.

He said of the late Metropolitan Amfilohije of the Serbian Orthodox Church that he was "an incredibly educated man, respected in Orthodoxy and Catholicism, who understood Montenegro."

"We had a referendum on May 21, 2006, and just five days after the referendum, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church was held, led by the then Patriarch Pavle, who expressed great respect for the referendum in Montenegro. He accepted the realization that Montenegro is independent and announced the position that the church should now be treated as an Orthodox church in Montenegro," said Vujanović.

The former president of Montenegro pointed out that in August 2005, the legal council of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral pointed out that the name Serbian Orthodox Church was being used incorrectly, unnecessarily and abusively in order to distance those believers who are Montenegrins from it, and added that he considers the name "Orthodox Church in Montenegro" appropriate, which he believes is a great achievement of Metropolitan Amfilohije.