Breathtaking scenery and no currency: five things to know about Montenegro

An unsinkable
They are all dead: Serbian Milosevic, Croatian Franjo Tudjman and Bosnian Alija Izetbegovic. Milo Djukanovic is still around: installed in 1991 at the helm of Montenegro by Milosevic when he was only 29 years old, he left in time to join the Western camp. He led his country to independence from Serbia in 2006. Milo Djukanovic, 58, has been prime minister six times and is currently serving his second term as president. The Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which he heads as patron, will seek to secure another majority on Sunday, enabling it to continue ruling the country.

A country without a currency
Montenegro is a country without a currency. The euro has been in circulation since 2002. Prior to that, the deutschemark had been in circulation since 1999. This was a decision by Milo Djukanovic to distance himself from Serbia. His country gained control over inflation.

Breathtaking landscapes
Montenegro was the first country in the world to declare itself an "ecological state" and committed itself to environmental protection in its 1991 constitution. It is home to the Great Beach (Velika plaza), the longest beach on the Adriatic with 12 km of sand. The canyon of the Tara River is considered the deepest in Europe with its 1,300-metre gorge. Its clear waters and surrounding vegetation have earned itUNESCO protection. The very name of the country refers to the beauty of its nature. In Italian, Montenegro means Black Mountain, a possible description of the forest-covered Lovcen Mountain.

An unarmed coup d'état
On a legislative Sunday in October 2016, the authorities announced that they had foiled a coup d'état that would have been fomented by pro-Russian militants, hostile to the membership of Nato of which Montenegro has been a member since 2017. Twenty people were arrested, mostly Serbs. They are said to have planned to take power, or even to assassinate Milo Djukanovic. The prosecutor's office accused Russia of being behind this plot, which Moscow rejected. For the pro-Russian opposition, the plot was merely a set-up to eliminate him from the political scene. It points out that the police never produced any weapons that the alleged coup plotters were supposed to use. Two of the pro-Russian opposition leaders Milan Knezevic and Andrija Mandic were sentenced in the first instance to five years in prison.

Tourists and thugs
With an unemployment rate of around 18% and an average salary of 520 euros, Montenegro relies on tourism and its 300 km of coastline dotted with tourist highlights such as Budva and Kotor, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. But Kotor is also the stronghold of drug traffickers, the scene of score-settling. In the summer, cruise passengers sometimes come across special forces policemen in camouflage when they get off the boat... Organised crime and corruption remain two scourges for this small country where some of the "Pink Panthers" come from, these bank robbers from the former Yugoslavia who have been scouring jewellery shops all over the world for the past 20 years.

Read also:

⋙ Hikes, visits, cruises... Five experiences to enjoy in Montenegro
⋙ In Montenegro, the legend of the island of Our Lady of the Rock
⋙ VIDEO - In Montenegro, the tourist boom threatens the Adriatic coast