University Professor: Census Reveals a Deeply Polarized Montenegro

Milo Lompar(BETAPHOTO/Press centar UNS)

A professor at the Faculty of Philology in Belgrade, Milo Lompar, said on Oct. 16 that Montenegro’s census had revealed a deeply divided society.

Lompar said for BETA that the results of the population count should be viewed against a historical background, as part of a process. “The fact that 41 percent of Montenegrin citizens defined themselves as Montenegrins unveils a trend started 80 years ago, erasing Serbian presence in Montenegro as the chief characteristic of a violent social engineering. The premise - less than half the population – permeated Montenegro’s institutions and administration over a prolonged period of time,” he explained.

The professor also said that linguistic variables did not change the insight. “Ninety-five percent of the people participating in the 1990 census said they were using Serbian language, and the figure has dropped to 43 percent since. Serbian language and Cyrillic are discriminated against in Montenegro,” Lompar has cautioned. According to the professor, the census shows that the pendulum has swung back to the 2003 census, and that the number of Serbs has grown slightly since, the number of Montenegrins has dropped a little, whereas the number of Serbian speakers has definitely decreased.

“It shows that over the past 20 years the process of crystallization has developed among younger generations on both sides, revealing a deeply divided Montenegro. The results of the population count suggest a social structure supported by a former Montenegrin president, Milo Djukanovic’s 30 years in power. For, the main divide he had built on the deep fundamentals of Communist dictatorship thrives on confrontation between Serbs and Montenegrins,” Lompar underlined.