Census Campaign in Montenegro: Porfirije as Envoy of Official Belgrade

By: Nevena Kovačević

Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) Porfirije Perić arrived in Podgorica yesterday, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the construction of the Church of Christ's Resurrection in Podgorica, and the consecration of the foundation stone for the Church of Saint Sava and the Saint Sava Orthodox Gymnasium, which is being built in the Podgorica neighborhood of Stari Aerodrom, and for the construction of which the government in technical mandate has allocated budget funds in the amount of 900,000 euros.

However, judging by Porfirije's meetings with Montenegrin officials, and the messages conveyed during today's liturgy, it is clear that the reason for his visit to Montenegro is quite different.

Much more important than the tenth anniversary of the church is the not at all coincidental overlap of this visit with the census, which, despite the opposition of parts of the Montenegrin public and protests by citizens, will most likely be held from November 1st to 15th.

And while the Montenegrin opposition is calling for a postponement of the census, and announcing the possibility of a boycott if its continuation is insisted upon under conditions of deep political and institutional crisis, the Serbian patriarch, as the most important envoy of Aleksandar Vučić, is carrying out his assigned task – to prevent the postponement of the census and to increase the number of Serbs in Montenegro with revisionist messages.

First, Porfirije met with President Jakov Milatović, who hosted a formal lunch in his honor.

Milatović thus tried to justify his recent statement made during the 2BBS forum organized by the Atlantic Alliance of Montenegro, when, in response to the question of how he would declare himself in the upcoming census, he said that he is ethnically Montenegrin.

This claim served him as penicillin for a part of the sovereignist voters who, by voting against Milo Đukanović, gave him support in the presidential elections, but on the other hand, it agitated the majority part of the pro-Serbian oriented voters of the Europe Now movement.

Therefore, the pleasant lunch with Porfirije was an opportunity for the president to regain the trust of SPC believers and satisfy some disappointed voters, as well as, certainly, to explain his position on his census status to the envoy from Belgrade.

Furthermore, since Milatović is most responsible for the change in government formation and the likely creation of a pro-Russian and pro-Serbian government with the entry of the For the Future of Montenegro coalition, there is no doubt that, during the pleasant lunch, messages of gratitude from official Belgrade for a job well done were also conveyed.

Last night, a reception for the Serbian patriarch was held at the church, attended by numerous officials from the For the Future of Montenegro coalition and Alekse Bečić's Democrats. In addition to Porfirije, Serbian opposition figures, Dveri leader Boško Obradović and Zavetnici leader Milica Djurđević Stamenkovski, also arrived in Podgorica.

The arrival of Serbian right-wingers is not surprising, given that Milica Zavetnica promised Serbia's assistance in conducting the census, which was only announced at the time, at last year's session of the committee for diaspora and Serbs in the region in the Serbian Parliament, which was also attended by the presidents of certain Montenegrin municipalities.

At this morning's liturgy in the Church of Christ's Resurrection, Porfirije, among other things, stated that Serbs from Podgorica best know their origins, their faith, and their nation, alluding to the revisionist thesis that the roots of Serbianness lie in Montenegro.

The Serbian patriarch spoke about the cult of Saint Sava as a unifier of the Orthodox people, and about the Orthodox faith as a link between all Christians, emphasizing the fact that all adherents of the Orthodox faith are, according to the mythomaniacal logic, actually Serbs.

Thus, Porfirije has given clear instructions to the faithful regarding how to declare themselves in the upcoming census.

If they are Orthodox, and also believers, then it is imperative that they declare themselves as Serbs who speak the Serbian language, because for the revisionists, the invention of the Montenegrin nation and the Montenegrin language is unquestionable, and every opportunity should be used to repeat the destructive narrative of one faith and one nation, the same language and the same ethnic origin.

In addition, the continuation of spreading the myth of Saint Sava is inevitable, whose life and work have no significance whatsoever in the spiritual and educational foundation of the Montenegrin state.

However, since indoctrination ideas spread fastest through the education segment, a religious school bearing his name is the best way to continue the revisionist maneuvering.

After the sermon about a monolingual and mono-ethnic people, attended by officials from the For the Future of Montenegro coalition and the Democrats, ministers in the technical government from the Socialist People's Party Dragoslav Šćekić and Vladimir Joković, presidents of the municipalities of Nikšić, Pljevlja, and Herceg Novi Marko Kovačević, Dario Vraneš, and Stevan Katić, as well as the security advisor to the president of the state Dejan Vukšić, a meeting followed with the technical Prime Minister Dritan Abazović and Minister of Justice Marko Kovač, which was attended by Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral Joanikije.

Although the details are not known, it is certain that the praise from official Belgrade for Abazović, who paved the way for the process of state deconstruction, which is successfully continued by the leaders of the Europe Now movement, could not have been absent.

An active role in the pre-census campaign is the goal of both the Serbian authorities and the local opposition.

And while they convince us that the DPS reduced the number of Serbs in Montenegro through pressure, thus creating a threatened nation, the subjects in power are actively participating in the propaganda campaign of official Belgrade in coordination with the SPC, insisting on holding the census without conditions for free self-declaration by citizens and contrary to international recommendations.

The earliest possible holding of the census, with the aim of proving the thesis of a sharp increase in the number of Serbs, the supremacy of Serbianness, and the denial of the existence of the Montenegrin nation, is a strategic interest of the Serbian authorities, and its realization is one of the prerequisites for the unimpeded implementation of ethnic engineering and the complete abolition of the identity status of Montenegrins.

Therefore, Vučić's confessor and envoy uses every moment to carry out his assigned mission, following the example of all well-trained members of the Russian-Serbian agent network. Because – religion in the Balkans has long lost its spiritual character and become a tool in the hands of politicians with dangerous intentions, while religious fanaticism is the deadliest weapon for igniting decades of simmering national tensions.

This is precisely why Prvoslav Perić is the best promoter of an aggressive mono-ethnic and mono-lingual campaign, the same one of which the destructive reconciliation narrative is a part, which systematically destroys attempts to build regional and good-neighborly relations between Balkan countries.