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Montenegro and Serbia have declared that the ambassador of the other country is an undesirable person. Diplomats must leave their respective country of parking, as announced by the foreign ministries in Podgorica and Belgrade.
Montenegro started: the small Balkan country expelled Serbian ambassador Vladimir Bozovic. The diplomat interfered in the internal affairs of the host country and thus violated international law, the Montenegrin Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. More recently, in public statements, Bozovic described the legally questionable unification of Montenegro with Serbia in 1918 as “liberation” and an “act of free will”.
Serbia responded a few hours later. In the course of reciprocity, Belgrade declared Montenegrin Ambassador Tarzan Milosevic undesirable and expelled him from the country.
Both states are candidates for EU membership, so they should actually fight for peaceful ways to resolve disputes, beyond diplomatic escalations.
Opposition alliance to take power in Montenegro
The government move in Podgorica was carried out four days before his replacement. Next Wednesday, parliament must vote on a new government backed by a broad opposition alliance.
In Montenegro, President Milo Djukanovic has ruled in various capacities for almost 30 years. He led the small Balkan country to independence from Serbia in 2006 and to NATO in 2017. In August, his ruling party, the DPS, lost the parliamentary elections.
The dominant force in the new government coalition is the pro-Serbian and pro-Russian Democratic Front (DF). The smaller allies are pro-Western, but want to break Djukanovic’s previous omnipotence as the DF. In the coalition negotiations it was agreed that NATO membership and the EU accession process should not be questioned.
Djukanovic always tried to strengthen a Montenegrin identity during his presidency. Serbia, on the other hand, tries again and again to bring the country into its sphere of influence. Through the Serbian Orthodox Church, diplomats and media interventions, Belgrade propagates the national concept of the “Serbian world”, which ethnic Serbs seek to co-opt outside of Serbia. In the 2011 census, 29 percent of the citizens of Montenegro identified themselves as Serbs.
