Montenegrin Mothers Threaten ’Radical’ Action Over Benefit Cut

Mothers spent days and nights on the streets after the protests were launched on March 1. Photo: BIRN.

To the sound of ex-Yugoslav rock music blasting from large speakers, hundreds of women spent their 12th day in front of the Montenegrin parliament in the capital, Podgorica, demanding the government reverse its decision to reduce state aid for mothers of three and more children.

Dragica Kovacevic, aged 57, from the town of Niksic, a mother of four, was on the street for the fifth day and night in a row after the protests were launched on March 1.

She says she will be there as long as she can stand it.

“The elections have come and our payments have gone with them. Now we see yet another broken election promise,” Kovacevic told BIRN.

A law guaranteeing lifetime cover for the mothers of three and more children was adopted ahead of the election last October.

But in January, the government decided to cut the aid for mothers by 25 per cent as part of moves to improve fiscal stability.

The government cut the financial help allocated to more than 22,000 women. Those who initially got 336 euros or 192 euros a month, depending on the number of children they had, found the sum reduced to 264 and 144 euros respectively.

“Three monthly fees were paid in full and on time – but as soon as the elections were over, problems started,” Kovacevic recalled.

“They [the government] could not afford to waver before the election because every vote counted for them, but now they don’t care,” she added.

Photo: BIRN.

Hundreds of mothers staged a fresh rally on Monday outside the parliament and threatened to up the tempo, calling on all women around the country to join them for the new protest on Tuesday.

One member of the protest’s organising committee, Zeljka Savkovic, said mothers do not want to make an ultimatum but urged the Constitutional Court to rule on what the law prescribes.

“I believe the people who sit there [in the court] will understand that a person stands to lose their honour the moment they do not make the right decision,” she said.

The protest organisers said that around half of the women on the list of those receiving the state payments were jobless.

Women will not cease their campaign to get the changes reversed, they warned.

Earlier, the Ministry of Finance said that reverting to the old benefit amounts was not possible this year because the Budget Law for 2017 only allowed for payments of 264 and 144 euros.

The ministry also said that the government had no authority to change the law on benefits for mothers on its own, as it came under the jurisdiction of the Constitutional Court.

Photo: BIRN.

Prime Minister Dusko Markovic drew the anger of the women protesters when he vowed not to back down.

Asked what the government would do to help the thousands of women depending on state aid, Markovic said the decision to cut the benefits would not be altered.

“They should go home and be with their children. No pressure will alter the government’s decision,” he said on March 4, provoking sharp reactions in the country.

Besides the government, Marica Sljukic, aged 64, said she criticised other women beneficiaries of state aid for not showing up at the rallies.

Of a total of 22,000 affected women, only several hundred have continued with the protests outside the parliament, “defending what they were given, not what they sought”, she said.

“I heard some women saying that they do not want to take to the streets – but if we succeed in defending our rights, they will also benefit from it. That’s just not fair,” Sljukic added.

Photo: BIRN

Mothers also spent the International Women’s Day, March 8, on the streets. They were briefly joined by some NGOs and opposition politicians. After it, they were again on their own.

“If 10,000 women decided to show up on this street where we are now, which is only half of the total number, that would make the difference,” Sljukic said.

On February 16, when some 2,500 women protested for the first time, the protest turned violent when some of the mothers broke through metal fences set up by police to enter the building.

Police prevented the crowd from storming the premises. However, as the protest continued, a delegation of demonstrators was allowed inside to speak with government representatives.

Meanwhile, the protests become a political issue in Montenegro with the ruling Democratic Party of Socialists, led by former PM Milo Djukanovic, accusing the pro-Russian alliance Democratic Front of being behind the rallies in Podgorica.

Some of the women from the protest’s organising committee were accused of being politically active and of using the rallies to promote the views of the pro-Serbian opposition parties.

Pro-government media also reported that the mothers spent the nights “wrapped in the blankets owned by the opposition Front”, singing Serbian nationalist songs and playing Uzicko kolo, a traditional dance from Serbia.

The protesters deny that their revolt is politically motivated, saying it is a purely social protest.

“We only seek what belongs to us. Here there are Montenegrins, Serbs, Bosniaks, Albanians … some of the mothers may be members of political parties but I assure you, politics is not behind this,” Kovacevic said.