675 people received Montenegrin citizenship according to simplified criteria in the last year. At the same time, slightly more than 2.300 requests were submitted, Radovan Popović, head of the Directorate for Citizenship in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told Radio Free Europe.
The citizenships were obtained in accordance with the Decision adopted by the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić on February 4, 2021, at an electronic session just a few hours before the vote of no confidence.
The decision eased the criteria for acquiring citizenship, so instead of the previous 15 years of residence, ten is enough.
Namely, the previous condition was 10 years of permanent residence, which was reached through five temporary ones. The current solution implies five years of temporary residence and the same amount of permanent residence.
Expert on status issues of foreigners and migrants, Bojan Bugarin, warns that the long-term implementation of this Decision would allow thousands of people to acquire Montenegrin citizenship through an accelerated procedure.
Parliamentary elections await Montenegro in June, and the Population Census in November.
How has it been so far?
Due to the fact that Montenegro has a small number of inhabitants, about 620.000, the acquisition of citizenship has been very restrictive until now. In addition, the Law prohibits the possession of dual citizenship except in exceptional cases.
The current regulations on the method of acquiring citizenship, which entailed 15 years of residence, were adopted by the government of the Democratic Party of Socialists Milo Đukanović, who was replaced in the elections of August 2020, after three decades of rule.
The new government was formed by the pro-Serbian Democratic Front (DF), the Democrats and the Citizens' Movement URA. The government elected by those parties, led by Zdravko Krivokapić, changed those regulations, shortening the period of residence to 10 years.
Questionable constitutionality of the Decision on acquiring citizenship
At the time of that Decision, the current Prime Minister Dritan Abazović was the Deputy Prime Minister. Since he was in conflict with Krivokapić at the time, he announced that the Decision would be annulled "because it is illegal". Although he succeeded Krivokapić as prime minister, the decision was not overturned.
Podgorica lawyer Miloš Vukčević immediately, after passing the Decision on simplified criteria for the admission of foreigners to Montenegrin citizenship, submitted an initiative for the evaluation of its constitutionality. The Constitutional Court has not yet decided on it.
Vukčević told RSE that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had time to propose and the Government to adopt the amended Decision, but that this was not done.
"The initiative towards the Constitutional Court did not prevent the Government from changing that Decision, as they promised," says Vukčević.
According to him, the Decision is unconstitutional and in contradiction with the Law on Montenegrin Citizenship and the Law on Foreigners.
Influence on the electoral roll
Krivokapić's government tried for the first time in 2021 to pass a Decision on easier acquisition of Montenegrin citizenship.
However, it was abandoned after a fierce reaction from the public, international factors, organizations and political parties, due to assessments that it would affect the ethnic composition of Montenegro and change the structure of the electorate.
Lawyer Miloš Vukčević believes that the current, easier acquisition of Montenegrin citizenship could potentially change the structure of the electorate. He says that treating a foreigner's temporary stay as a permanent one is an easy way to acquire citizenship, from which the right to vote also arises:
"Thus, a significant number of foreigners will receive citizenship, which can potentially change the demographic structure of voters. Because after two years after obtaining citizenship, they also acquire the right to vote," concludes Vukčević.
On the other hand, Damir Suljević from the non-governmental organization Center for Civic Education does not think that the acquisition of citizenship is simplified as a function of the changes in the voter list.
"I do not recognize the decision as something aimed at manipulating the population census or voter list. Both are already heavily manipulated in other ways, and citizenship is not the only condition for enrollment in the voter list," Suljević told RSE.
In Montenegro, about 540.000 citizens have the right to vote. With such a small number of voters, any change can have an impact on the outcome of the election.
For example, in the parliamentary elections held in August 2020, the result was "breaking" by about 2 to 3.000 votes, which prevailed in favor of the current parliamentary majority. This ruled that she won a slim majority - 41 mandates, one more than the opponent.
The same was the case in 2016, when a few thousand more votes won by the DPS provided that party with its coalition partners with four years of power.
Bojan Bugarin, an expert on the status issues of foreigners and migrants, indicates that since independence in 2006 until 2020, around 31.000 people have acquired Montenegrin citizenship.
"From 2021 to today, between 2000 and 3000 foreigners have applied for citizenship. I assume that most of them will get it," says Bulgarian.
He states that there are 30.000 foreigners with permanent residence in Montenegro, who are also close to acquiring citizenship.
"If we keep in mind that there are still 50.000 foreigners with temporary residence, then we can calculate how many potential new citizens there will be in the next ten years, if the Decision on a faster and easier way to acquire Montenegrin citizenship would remain."
In addition to the citizenship requirements, a significant influx of people seeking a stay in Montenegro for up to three months is recorded in Montenegro.
Only in the first three months of this year, more than 90 Russian citizens registered a stay of up to 64.000 days, which is more than 10 percent of the total population.
Montenegro has about 620.000 inhabitants.
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