2019–2020 clerical protests in Montenegro

2019–2020 clerical protests in Montenegro
2019–2020 clerical protests in Montenegro
	Protest prayer walks in front of the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica, on 26 January 2020
Date	24 December 2019 – 30 August 2020; (8 months and 6 days)
Location	Montenegro
Caused by	Law on religious freedoms; Religious discrimination; Authoritarianism of Milo Đukanović; Police brutality;
Goals	Withdrawal of the disputed law
Methods	Nonviolent protest marches, road block protests, barricade, civil disobedience
Resulted in	Serbian Orthodox Church victory; Opposition parties win the 2020 elections.; Controversial parts of the Law removed; DPS rule in Montenegro that started in 1991 ends.; Start of Montenegrin nationalist protests;
Parties
Serbian Orthodox Church; Serbs of Montenegro Serb National Council; "Ne damo Crnu Goru"; Supporting political subjects: Democratic Front; United Montenegro; Socialist People's Party; Workers' Party; True Montenegro; Democratic Montenegro; DEMOS (partial); Supported by:; Serbia; Republika Srpska	Government of Montenegro Ministry of Justice; Ministry of Internal Affairs; National Security Agency; Law enforcement; Supporting organizations: Democratic Socialists; Social Democrats; Liberals; Bosniak Party; Albanian List (partial); Croatian Civic Initiative; Social Democratic Party; The Montenegrin; Montenegrin Orthodox Church; Montenegrin Movement
Lead figures
	Amfilohije Radović; Joanikije Mićović Zdravko Krivokapić; Ratko Mitrović; Miodrag Davidović Andrija Mandić; Nebojša Medojević; Milan Knežević; Marko Carević; Goran Danilović; Marko Milačić; Vladimir Joković; Vladimir Pavićević; Aleksa Bečić Milo Đukanović; Milan Roćen Duško Marković; Zoran Pažin; Predrag Bošković; Aleksandar Bogdanović; Mevludin Nuhodžić; Srđan Darmanović Branimir Gvozdenović; Ivan Brajović; Rafet Husović; Ranko Krivokapić; Andrija Popović Miraš Dedeić; Jevrem Brković

In late December 2019, a wave of protests started against the controversial, newly adopted "Law on Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Legal Status of Religious Communities" which effectively transferred ownership of church buildings and estates built before 1918 (when the Kingdom of Montenegro was abolished and annexed by Kingdom of Serbia) from the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro to the Montenegrin state. The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro, which owned 66 mainly medieval monasteries, dozens of churches and other real estate there, insisted the state wanted to impound its assets, while Pro-Western Montenegro's president Milo Đukanović, accused the Serbian church of promoting pro-Serb policies that are aimed at "undermining Montenegrin statehood".