Thousands of anti-government protesters gathered outside Montenegro’s parliament on Tuesday December 20 to call for early elections among other demands.
The protesters, whose slogan is ‘We are Many’, published a list of demands, which included the withdrawal of a plan to join the ‘Open Balkan’ scheme, as well as a bill to limit the powers of Montenegro’s president.
The Open Balkan initiative was formalised in 2019 when Serbia, Albania and North Macedonia agreed to create an economic zone of 12 million people and open borders for people and products.
Politics in the tiny Balkan republic of only 625,000 people has long been marked by a rift between those who identify as Montenegrins, and those who see themselves as Serbs and oppose Montenegro’s independence from a former state union with neighbouring and much larger Serbia.
