Montenegro parents plan protests over mandatory MMR vaccination for kindergarten

Parents in Montenegro announced they will stage protests in September against the government’s requirement that children receive the measles‑mumps‑rubella (MMR) vaccine to enroll in kindergartens. One father said he would rather pay fines or go to prison than vaccinate his healthy child, insisting the vaccine is unsafe despite epidemiologists confirming its safety.

The Ministry of Health reports that only about 13 % of children born in 2024 have been vaccinated, making Montenegro the European country with the highest proportion of unvaccinated preschoolers. Parents plan strikes in front of kindergartens and other institutions, including the Constitutional Court, where legal challenges to the mandatory vaccination law are pending.

The protests follow earlier demonstrations outside the Montenegrin parliament and are linked to broader disputes involving the European Court of Human Rights and constitutional courts in Serbia and Croatia over the same legislation.