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Joanikije chose Democrats, but will the SPC choose him?

FOTO: Demokrate

According to Dnevne Novine daily, there’s a rumor that leaders of the Democratic Front, DF, asked for help from Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vučić, to allegedly use his influence with the administrator of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral, Bishop Joanikije, to turn him [Joanikije] to the Democratic Front again instead of the Democrats. It has long been speculated that now they expect the Serbian president to mediate between Joanikije and Serbian Patriarch Porfirije, thus reinforcing the influence of the Serbian church in Montenegro, having in mind that it somewhat weakened in the aftermath of Metropolitan Amfilohije’s death.

Whether this is true or not, we may only guess, but it’s obvious that something is happening since the Nikšić local elections, when Joanikije openly backed the Democrats. In addition, there’s yesterday’s statement of the DF in which they reminded Joanikije that all credits for the adoption of the religion law should go the DF (with 21 seats in the parliament) instead of the Democrats (10 seats). Before the DF’s official statement, the leader of the Movement for Changes, Nebojša Medojević, posted on FB that relations between Democrats and Joanikije were not fair.

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