Artists Join Anti-Government Protests in Montenegro

Protesters from the Network for Affirmation of the Non-Governmental Sector, MANS, on Wednesday held an artistic performance in front of the government building in Podgorica.

There they exhibited political caricatures of senior officials. Exhibition pieces also alluded to government debts, the continuing influence of the country’s longtime leader Milo Djukanovic and to the need to more efficiently fight corruption. One ironically claimed that the Montenegrin government has better acrobats than a circus.

Ines Mrdovic reads part of her book photo: Balkan Insight

During the perfomance, writer Ines Mrdovic read part of her book "With Teeth For the Wind", describing the disgust of the main character with the nepotism, political passivity and hypocrisy of Montenegrin society.

“This government behind us has brought culture and everything else in this country into poverty," she said, appealing to all artists to join the protesters’ fight.

Previously, Marija Vickovic, the Belgrade-based Montenegrin actress, and Dino Kapetanovic, frontman of the alternative band Autogeni trening, expressed support for the protesters’ main demand, which is for the government to resign.

At the end of performance, Mrdovic also invited people to come to the sixth civil protest since the beginning of the year, set for Thursday.

A protest walk organized by MANS, the Students’ Union, and the Free Trade Unions, like several previous ones, will start at 6pm on Thursday in front of the main building of University of Montenegro.

It will end in front of the government building, where protesters will once again repeat their demand for it to resign.