Democratic People’s Party Sets Demands: Serbian Language, Citizenship and Tricolor or Exit from Power
Montenegro’s pro-Russian and pro-Serbian Democratic People’s Party (DNP) has set conditions for its continued participation in the country’s executive власти. Ministers Milun Zogović and Maja Vukićević, appointed on the party’s quota, are required at the very next cabinet session to initiate constitutional amendments that would allow the Serbian language to be recognized as an official language. In parallel, they must propose changes to the Law on Citizenship and the Law on State Symbols, with the aim of legally establishing the tricolor as a national flag.
The adopted conclusions also place special emphasis on the need for comprehensive dialogue based on the results of the referendum held on December 14, 2025, which, according to the party, “clearly reflects the expressed will of the residents of Zeta regarding the intention to build a wastewater treatment plant.”
BGNES recalls that it was precisely this project that prompted DNP leader Milan Knežević to announce in December that his party would withdraw from the governing coalition. The party stressed that if these initiatives fail to receive support at the government level, DNP ministers will resign, while the party’s parliamentary group will withdraw its support for the cabinet of Prime Minister Milojko Spajić.
Following the completion of the population census, the party claims, every public initiative it has launched related to the constitutional recognition of the Serbian language, the adoption of a new Law on Citizenship, or the legal establishment of the tricolor as a national flag has been rejected by coalition partners. Such a policy, according to the DNP, amounts to discrimination against the linguistic majority, disregard for tens of thousands of compatriots living in Serbia who lack rights in Montenegro, and a humiliation of national dignity through the acceptance of ultimatums from individual countries in the region.
Particularly harsh criticism was directed at a recent police operation in Zeta, which the DNP described as repressive. The party claims that 54 local residents were detained, including minors, women, elderly people, the mayor of the municipality and municipal councilors, “solely because they were peacefully defending the referendum results” and opposing what the party calls the “corrupt project to build the wastewater treatment plant.”
The party noted that it accepted an initiative by parliamentary speaker Andrija Mandić to begin new negotiations aimed at overcoming the crisis, but the talks ended without results after the prime minister rejected the proposed options.
“We will not be silent observers or accomplices in the assimilation of the Serbian people, in corruption scandals, dubious contracts and the squandering of national resources and interests. Montenegro should be a state for all of us, yet it is increasingly becoming a state for a few, who will abandon it the moment they lose power,” the DNP said.
BGNES recalls that in 2016 there was an attempted coup in Montenegro aimed at diverting Podgorica from its path toward NATO and the European Union. According to the Special Prosecutor’s Office, two Russian citizens, Eduard Shishmakov and Vladimir Popov, eight Serbian citizens, and Serbian leaders Milan Knežević and Andrija Mandić were involved in preparations for a violent overthrow of the government, with active support from the Serbian Orthodox Church (SOC). The goal was to remove and assassinate Prime Minister Milo Đukanović. | BGNES