Starting out as a prominent leader of the True People's Party in the Principality of Montenegro, state that would soon transform into a kingdom, Plamenac was a staunch supporter of the country's monarch Prince Nikola Petrović-Njegoš who changed his role to king in 1910.

Following the war, Plamenac became one of the leaders of the Greens and one of the chief protagonists of the 1919 Christmas Rebellion in opposition to the post-war Montenegrin unification with Serbia and subsequent creation of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

At the post he presided over units of exiled Greens who trained in the town of Gaeta with Italian support before being covertly shipped back home across the Adriatic where a low-level guerrilla insurgency continued even after the failed rebellion.

By the mid-1920s, Plamenac did a complete turnaround, deciding to cut a deal with the Kingdom of SCS authorities, which allowed him to return home where he became a centrist politician with the People's Radical Party of Nikola Pašić.

They were pejoratively known as Uskogaće (Tight-trousers) because of their forced and distasteful western European fashion, which they promoted as a modern concept at the time when national attire was still a main form of dressing in Montenegro.

Receiving contact with Italian armed forces at the coastline and securing an amount of basic weaponry, as Italy had influential interests in Montenegro, the real insurgency was instigated around Cetinje's on 7 January 1919.

Other regiments like the one besieging Nikšić were defeated too, the remainder hid into the forests and started guerrilla resistance which continued over the following years, committing surprise attacks on the Whites and their supporters and Plamenac escaped to Albania to evade getting caught.

Exiled King Nikola, living in the French town of Neuilly, publicly criticized the insurgency and called for all those who cherished his name and who remain loyal to him to lay down arms in the name of peace and no war between brothers.

By late 1920, the Constitutional Assembly elections took place in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes; the Allied Powers had previously agreed to consider it a final self-determination event in Montenegro.

International watchers from Britain and France concluded that the election was conducted with democratic standards and, in accordance to the fact that the strong majority of Montenegrins turned to vote despite the Greens' call for boycott, for a total victory in favour of unionism; the Great Powers broke off diplomatic relations to Plamenac's government-in-exile, giving a final blow to his premiership.

His only son, crown prince Danilo, similarly to numerous other Montenegrin leaders in exile, expressed reluctance to accept the throne so he abdicated in favor of his nephew Mihailo and remained in anonymity in Rome.

Although Italy considered it an internal problem, it did not want to allow a conflict on its soil, reported by contemporary Italian media as a "mini-civil war", so eventually pro-Milena Milo Vujović and his armed guards managed to secure the structures occupied by Plamenac and temporarily control the government before the formation of Gvozdenović's cabinet.

Desperate and looking for support, Plamenac headed to Rome to found a special council for the restoration of Montenegrin sovereignty, separate from the main government-in-exile which was dominated more and more by a defeatist approach and had opened direct contact with the Yugoslav authorities.

On 31 January 1925, he wrote in repent and swore an oath of loyalty to the king: Your Majesty, My entire political work was from first day of my public life dedicated to: glory, advancement and the magnitude of my Fatherland and my Dynasty, as well as the liberation and unification of the Serbian people.

He also became a Minister in the Kingdom's Government, causing an outburst of public controversy regarding his post, nevertheless King Alexander remained strictly supportive on the matter, as part of his rehabilitation program.