The Government of Montenegro approved on Friday the Basic Agreement, which should regulate the relations between Montenegro and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic stated that this agreement was approved after more than four hours of discussion.

13 ministers voted for the approval of the Basic Agreement, five were against, while three ministers did not participate in the session.

With this, the Government approved the Agreement previously agreed by Prime Minister Dritan Abazović with Patriarch Porfirije, despite the opposition of some ministers and the parliamentary majority that supports that Government.

Deputy Prime Minister Rashko Konjević said that Dritan Abazović's government is thus losing the parliamentary majority that has supported it so far.

After the approval of this document, the Basic Agreement will be sent to the Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church based in Belgrade, which must also accept it.

As previously warned by Patriarch Porfirije and Prime Minister Abazović, an interim agreement will be reached on the date of signing the Agreement in Montenegro.

Earlier, some of the parties that are in the Government or support it in the Parliament, have warned of the initiative to shorten the mandate of the Assembly and organize extraordinary parliamentary elections, in case the minority Government of Abazović approves the Basic Agreement, reports REL.

According to the Constitution, the Assembly can shorten the mandate with the proposal of the President of the State, the Government or with the proposal of at least 25 deputies.

Among the opponents of signing the current text of the Agreement are the Democratic Party of Socialists of President Milo Djukanović, which has no ministers in the Government, but provides parliamentary support, the SDP, a part of the opposition, the Montenegrin national associations, a part of the sector non-governmental…

They consider that the Basic Agreement places the Serbian church above the Montenegrin state and translates the Montenegrin cultural and religious heritage into the Serbian one.

The non-governmental sector has pointed out a series of legal anomalies, from the fact that some provisions are contrary to the positive regulations of Montenegro to the declaration that this agreement violates the secular character of the state, guaranteed by the Constitution.

Despite the opposition of a part of the opinion, which demands that the agreement be debated and its text corrected, Prime Minister Abazović implemented the approval procedure in only ten days.

First, he formed the Working Group on Negotiations, which, as far as the public was informed, had only one session, then announced the text of the agreement agreed with the Serbian Orthodox Church and announced its approval a day later during a meeting with the patriarch in Belgrade.

The Basic Agreement on relations between the state of Montenegro and the Serbian Orthodox Church mainly contains the obligations of the state and institutions towards this religious community.

The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro is granted the extraterritoriality of religious objects, the possibility of religious education in public schools is opened, its subjectivity is recognized for six centuries longer than the Serbian Orthodox Church has in Serbia, it is given public-juridical powers and in in some areas, it provides equal legal status with state institutions.