People in Montenegro have a hard time accepting that someone who is not of their nationality holds a leadership position in their country, CEDEM's research on Ethnic distance in Montenegro showed.
According to methodologist Miloš Bešić, among the most sensitive issues when it comes to ethnic distancing are close relatives, but also the upbringing of children, because almost a third of Montenegrin citizens have a problem when a woman of another nationality brings up their children.
He pointed out that when it comes to the average distance in relation to all ethnic groups, the greatest degree of distance is towards the Roma.
"On average, almost every second citizen builds distance in relation to members of the Roma nationality", explained Bešić, emphasizing that the degree of distance is also high when it comes to Albanians (39.4) and Croats (35.6), while members of other nationalities have the same values are lower.
In terms of inter-ethnic distancing, Albanians compared to Montenegrins have a very low distance level of 0.58, and nine is the maximum, while Montenegrins compared to Albanians have a distance of 3.3.
"Albanians do not build distance towards Montenegrins, but Montenegrins towards Albanians and how," said Bešić. Judging by the research results, there is no ethnic distancing of Serbs from Montenegrins and vice versa, or, as Bešić claims, "Montenegrins have no problem either marrying or having their children brought up by Serbs, and vice versa."
The research showed that the level of distance between Bosniaks and Muslims towards Montenegrins is much lower (1.5) than vice versa (3.2). When it comes to the distance between Serbs and Bosniaks, Bosniaks are more tolerant, while the distance between Serbs and Albanians is 5.
Bešić pointed out that the distance of the Albanians in relation to the Serbs is three, but it is much more than their distance to the Montenegrins. According to him, Serbs show the highest degree of distancing in relation to other national ethnic groups.
"I can't say that the differences are drastic, they really aren't, but they show the greatest degree of distancing at 3.43. Therefore, out of nine possible relationships with members of other national groups, Serbs would not like to have more than three of those relationships," said Bešić.
Bešić reminds that the values of the ethnic distance compared to the previous two surveys, from 2007 and 2004, are lower. Although individual values are high this year, every single national group is more tolerant than it was in 2004 or 2007, except Bosniaks/Muslims.
"As much as we worry about individual relations and relations between different ethnicities, we can say that in 2013, Montenegro is more ethnically tolerant than it was in 2007 and 2004."
"As much as we worry about individual relations and relations between different ethnicities, we can say that in 2013, Montenegro is more ethnically tolerant than it was in 2007 and 2004," Bešić emphasized.
He also presented a survey on attitudes towards NATO, which showed that 45 percent of Montenegrin citizens do not support Montenegro's membership in NATO, 38 percent are in favor, while 17 percent have no opinion on NATO integration.
As announced at the press conference, the sample is representative of all adult citizens of Montenegro. It was implemented in 16 municipalities and included 790 respondents.
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