14 years ago to date Montenegro left brotherly Serbia and became an independent state

Printskrin: Youtube/mediteranac111

Printscreen: Youtube/mediteranac111

On May 21, exactly 14 years ago, Montenegro decided in a referendum that it does not want to remain in what was then the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, and instead become an independent state.

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According to official results, 419,240 Montenegrin citizens, or 86.5 percent of the total number of voters, voted in the 2006 referendum. The question on the ballot paper was, "Do you want Montenegro to be an independent state with full international-legal subjectivity?" 230,661 citizens (55.5 percent of voters) said "yes." 44.5 percent preferred a common state, i.e., 185,002 voters.

In order for the results of the referendum to be accepted, it was necessary for at least 55 percent of 484,718 citizens eligible to vote to say "yes" - which was fulfilled by the turnout.

The Union of Serbia and Montenegro and Article 2

According to experts, after the regime change in 2000, the Montenegrin authorities started advocating independence to a greater extent, with a possible reorganization that would involve an alliance of two independent states.

As a result, after several years of negotiations which the European Union joined in 2001, on February 4, 2003, the Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro was adopted in the Federal Assembly of Yugoslavia, thus abolishing the name "Yugoslavia."

In the spring of 2005, amendments to the Constitutional Charter of Serbia and Montenegro were adopted, and especially significant was amendment number 2, which said that a referendum on the status of the member state would be organized in cooperation with the European Union, thus laying the legal basis for EU's direct participation in the referendum process.

At its session on March 2, 2006, the Assembly of Montenegro, based on the proposal of then President of the Republic Filip Vujanovic, made a decision to hold a referendum on May 21 on the state and legal status. Slovak Frantisek Lipka was elected president of the Republic Referendum Commission (RRK).

"Serbia, we wish you every luck as we leave!"

After counting the results, the RRK announced the results of the referendum, according to which a majority of Montenegrin citizens were in favor of independence.

"Serbia, we wish you every luck as we leave!" - they sang in the building of the Montenegrin government, and chanted "E viva Montenergo," "We have a state," and, "Milo!"

Numerous citizens then took to the streets throughout Montenegrin towns, where they celebrated the result of the referendum. Shortly afterwards, on June 3, 2006, the Montenegrin parliament declared independence.

Thus, after 88 years, Montenegro became independent once again - after being an independent state in the period between 1910 and 1918, when it joined the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Completely opposite to the 1992 referendum

The fact that the referendum in 2006 was the second time that citizens were asked to declare themselves on the status of Montenegro as a state speaks volumes about how much things had changed.

In 1992, a referendum was held to decide the path of Montenegro after the Federal Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia ("former Yugoslavia") was disintegrated. At that time, 95.96 percent of citizens decided that they wanted to be a part of the newly formed Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ).

The question in the 1992 referendum was: "Are you in favor of Montenegro, as a sovereign republic, continuing in a common state - Yugoslavia, on an equal footing with other republics that want the same?"

(Telegraf.rs)