Montenegrins still seek independence

last updated 8 January 2015

Podgorica, Serbia and Montenegro

Yugoslavia officially renamed itself Serbia and Montenegro last week, with the ratification of a new, looser federal union between its two remaining republics. But the smaller republic, Montenegro, is unhappy with the arrangement, which still leaves Serbia dominant. “We wanted a different model, a union of two independent states,” Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic told the London Times. “But Serbia didn’t accept that—and the E.U. was on the side of Serbia.” He said he would continue to push for Montenegro to shed Belgrade’s yoke and become a sovereign state just like all the other former Yugoslav republics: Slovenia, Bosnia, Croatia, and Macedonia.