The Montenegro identity and statehood question and the formation of the Krivokapić government
On 4 December 2020, Montenegro’s parliament elected a government led by Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapić, the leader of the For the Future of Montenegro (Za budućnost Crne Gore, ZBCG) coalition in the 30 August 2020 parliamentary election. This was a landmark in contemporary Montenegrin history. For the first time since Montenegro reestablished a multiparty system in 1990, the Democratic Party of Socialists (Demokratska partija socijalista, DPS) went into opposition. Despite technically winning the election with 35.06% of the votes, the DPS left power due to the ZBCG’s alliance with the Peace is our Nation (Mir je naša nacija, MNN) and Black on White (Crno na bijelo, CnB) electoral coalitions. The ZBCG-MNN-CnB collectively mustered 50.62% of the votes (32.55%, 12.53% and 5.54% for each coalition respectively), which translated into a narrow parliamentary majority of 41 MPs (out of a total 81 seats in Montenegro’s parliament), enabling the election of Krivokapić’s government. Novelties aside, one old issue, namely the Montenegrin identity and statehood question (hereafter the MISQ), was very salient throughout this period.
Gustavo Oliveira Teles de Menezes
Gustavo Oliveira Teles de Menezes is a doctoral student at the San Tiago Dantas Graduate Program in International Relations (São Paulo State University - Unesp, University of Campinas - Unicamp, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo - PUC/SP) and researcher at the National Institute of Science and Technology for Studies on the United States (INCT-INEU), both based in São Paulo - Brazil. He obtained a master’s degree at the San Tiago Dantas program with a dissertation about Russia’s perspective on Serbia’s neutrality policy. In addition to Balkan politics, he has an interest in Russian foreign policy, focusing on its Middle East dimension.