Montenegro: Civil Initiative ‘21 May’ criticizes identity politics

The Civil Initiative ‘21 May’ has issued a statement criticizing Montenegrin politics, claiming it has been shaped by decades of propaganda and falsehoods designed to deepen identity divisions.

The group asserts that these narratives aim to undermine the civic character of Montenegro. They claim that during the breakup of Yugoslavia, political opposition was unfairly labeled as unpatriotic to mask the involvement of the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) in Belgrade-led policies.

Furthermore, the initiative alleges that a narrative regarding the ‘persecution’ of the Serbian Orthodox Church and the ‘threatened’ status of Serbs was created to serve specific political interests. They argue that these identity disputes are a tool of Belgrade-based assimilationist hegemony intended to transform Montenegro from a civic state into a collection of clerical-nationalist politics.