Anti-church protesters Government of Montenegro Serbian Orthodox Church Milo ĐukanovićVeselin Veljović Zdravko KrivokapićDritan AbazovićJoanikije MićovićPorfirije PerićAndrija MandićAleksandar VučićIvica DačićMilorad DodikAna BrnabićAleksa Bečić A series of violent protests against the enthronement of Joanikije Mićović of the Serbian Orthodox Church as the Metropolitan of Montenegro and the Littoral took place at the historic Cetinje Monastery in September 2021.

The protesters were overcome by the police that fired rubber bullets, tear gas and detonated shock bombs, while the enthronement presided over by Serbian Patriarch Porfirije Perić was held without the previously planned gathering of the faithful.

Mićović and Perić were transported towards the monastery by helicopter and were then surrounded by armed men and shielded with bullet-proof blankets, an operation executed by a special police unit on the insistence of prime minister Zdravko Krivokapić.

Largely due to the Serbian Orthodox Church's political activism, the DPS rule in Montenegro that had begun in 1991, ended following the opposition parties victory in the parliamentary election in August 2020.

[19] Fearing for the security of the future Metropolitan and the country as a whole, some politicians began to question the location of the enthronement ceremony, with some proposing that it should be held in the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, Podgorica.

[21][22][23] As pressure built on the Church hierarchy to relocate the enthronement, in a bid to reduce the risks, in late August the Metropolitanate, while confirming the ceremony would take place in Cetinje on 5 September, opted for downgrading the overall scale of the event by abandoning a plan for a mass gathering of the faithful and political leaders in front of the monastery.

[16][30][31] Following the enthronement on 5 September 2021, the Croatian daily Jutarnji list and Al Jazeera Balkans cited Montenegrin observers and one Serbian observer who opined that the enthronement of Joanikije in Cetinje exposed the Serbian Church as an instrument in the attempts undertaken by Belgrade and Moscow to absorb Montenegro into "Greater Serbia", with Montenegrin political scientist Šeki Radončić positing that it was a continuation of their bid to undermine and depose president Đukanović.

[24] It also noted that "the stage was set for that violence when, on August 15, Veselin Veljovic, the former police chief and now advisor to DPS leader and President Djukanovic, wrote an op-ed calling on Montenegrins to rally in Cetinje in early September against Joanikije's enthronement".

[39] The violence that accompanied the enthronement caused a new crisis in Montenegro's government, as Zdravko Krivokapić on 6 September 2021 expressed his dissatisfaction with the response of the top echelon of the country′s security apparatus and said their responsibility would be looked into,[1] with deputy prime minister Dritan Abazović in turn on 9 September threatening that the Civic Movement United Reform Action (URA) that he headed would bring down the government if the minister of the interior, Sergej Sekulović, and the director of the Police Department were replaced.

[40][26] According to inside sources cited by Russia′s Kommersant, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the government had recommended cancelling the ceremony in Cetinje but the Serbian Orthodox prelates insisted and the prime minister fell into line in the early hours of 5 September,[41][42][43] while Krivokopić said it was not until 4:30 a.m. on 5 September, when he threatened to risk his life and get on a helicopter with the prelates and go to Cetinje, that "part of the Police Directorate initiated a command process that lasted until 11 a.m."[1][44]).