Two thirds of citizens believe that Montenegro should be defined as a civil state, while one third of them prefer some kind of national exclusivity.
This was shown by a public opinion poll conducted by De Facto Consultancy agency for the needs of CDT in the period from 16 September to 18 October on a sample of 1000 respondents.
According to the survey, 64.1 percent of respondents believe that Montenegro should be defined as a civil state, while 21.1 % of them would define it as a state of the Montenegrin people and other citizens living in it, 11.3 % as a state of the Montenegrin and Serbian people and other people living in it, 2.4 % as a state of the Serbian people and other citizens who live in it while and 1.1% have no attitude towards this issue.
Although 77.2 % of the respondents said that they feel completely safe in Montenegro, more than a quarter (26.7%) believe that it is possible for social-political relations to lead to violence.
Concerns are the greatest among Bosniaks and Albanians. Namely, among those who have stated that they believe in the possibility of violence, Bosniaks account for 41.5%, Albanians – 41.5 %, Muslims- 30.5%, Montenegrins – 28.3% and Serbs – 19.6%. When asked in what form violence might be expressed, most answers referred violent protests (69.4%), individual ethnically motivated conflicts (66%) and organized ethnic conflicts (59.8%).
Three quarters of respondents (74.2%) rate interethnic relations in Montenegro as very good and mostly good.
Asked whether they have ever felt threatened due to a different political opinion, almost a third of the respondents answered affirmatively (31.7%).
The highest degree of ethnic distance of all groups (Montenegrins, Serbs, Bosniaks, Muslims, Albanians) is expressed towards the Roma population.
13% do not consider themselves anti-fascist, 13% declined to answer
The majority of respondents (73.8 %) consider themselves anti-fascist, 12.8 % stated that they do not feel that way, while 13.4% did not declare themselves on that issue.
When asked who was right during the Second World War, 37.7 % said that they thought that no one was right, while 32.1% did not have an attitude towards that issue. Almost a quarter (24.4%) mentioned partisans, 3.4 % Chetniks and 2.3 percent mentioned Greens.
The data shows division in relation to the genocide in Srebrenica, so for example 42.2 % of respondents believe that the Day of Remembrance of the Victims in Srebrenica should be celebrated, 44.4 % do not agree with that, while 13.4 % have no opinion on that issue.
The situation is similar in relation to Operation Storm, so 39.5% believe that the Day of Remembrance for the victims of Operation Storm should be marked, 47.6 % state it should not be so, while 12.9% are undecided.
One in five respondents (21.5%) does not think that Montenegro did the right thing when it apologized for war crimes against Croatia. Almost a quarter of respondents (23.6 %) do not believe that genocide was committed in Srebrenica in 1995.
Religious radicalization
One in ten respondents (12.2%) believes that it is justified to defend their faith with weapons, 80.6% of them do not agree with that, while 7.2 % did not declare themselves on this issue.
Among those who would justify violence is the largest number are members of the Orthodox faith – members of the Montenegrin Orthodox Church (19.3%), members of the Serbian Orthodox Church (18.2%) and those who express themselves as Orthodox without stating their affiliation with a particular church (10.9%). Orthodox is followed by members of the Islamic religion (10.4%). This attitude was not recorded among members of the Catholic faith.
Greatest support for democratic and expert form of government
When asked what they think about the different ways of governing the state, the respondents rated the democratic political system the best, then the expert, authoritarian and finally militaristic.
A total of 91.6 % of respondents rated the democratic political system as a very good and good way of governing. However, only 57.3% of them said that they were satisfied with the way democracy functioned in Montenegro.
After the democratic one, the respondents value the expert management system the most – 78.4 % of them consider it very good and good to have experts who would make decisions according to what they assess as the best for the state, and not the government.
The authoritarian and militaristic systems are rated the lowest, however, some respondents also highly value these forms of governance. Thus, almost a third of respondents (31.3%) rated the authoritarian system as very good and good way of governing, and about a quarter (26.4%) rated the militaristic system as such.
In addition, 16.1% of respondents believe that it is okay to suspend human rights for a certain period of time, if a higher goal requires it.
Milena Gvozdenovic
Research Coordinator