SD: Zirojević submitted an initiative to check the constitutionality of the decision to make the Day of Saint Vasilij Ostroški the glory of Nikšić

The spokesperson of the Social Democrats of Montenegro (SD) and the president of the club of councilors of that party in Nikšić, Nikola Zirojević, submitted to the Constitutional Court of Montenegro an initiative to check the constitutionality of the decision of the Municipal Assembly of Nikšić, which institutionalizes May 12, the Day of Saint Vasilij Ostroški, as the glory of the city.

This is stated in the statement that the SD sent to the media.

"Zirojević states in the initiative that at the proposal of the Commission formed by the Municipal Council of Nikšić at its tenth session, a Decision was put on the agenda of the 11th session of the Municipal Council of Nikšić, which changes the Statute of the Municipality of Nikšić by adding an article defining the glory of the municipality, that is Patron Saint's Day. The said decision was adopted, as he says, by the votes of all the councilors present," the announcement reads.

They add that he states that the day after the adoption of the aforementioned Decision, the reaction of the Center for Democratic Transition followed, which called on the councilors to abandon the aforementioned Decision, stating that the decision is contrary to the Constitution, because it privileges members of one religion over all other citizens, and that the Constitutional the court already stated this in 2005 when it declared unconstitutional a similar attempt in Herceg Novi.

"Appreciating that as a councilor in the local parliament, elected by the citizens exercising their right to vote in the Municipality of Nikšić, I am obliged to decide and vote according to my own convictions, and to perform my duties professionally, protecting the Constitution and laws of Montenegro, and having in view of the fact that there are serious doubts about the constitutionality of the Decision for which I myself voted, I am asking you, as the only state body with those powers, to declare on the constitutionality of the said Decision of the Nikšić SO, which I submitted to you with this initiative, so that it, in the case that it was not in accordance with the Constitution, was annulled", stated Zirojević in the initiative.