Protests started after the revelation of footage and documents that appear to implicate top officials in obtaining suspicious funds for the Đukanović' party. The demonstrations were organized by newly formed
97,000 – Odupri se! ("97,000 – Resist!") civic group, an informal group of intellectuals, academics,
NGO activists and journalists and supported from Montenegrin
parliamentary opposition parties:
Democratic Montenegro,
United Reform Action,
DEMOS,
Socialist People's Party,
Social Democratic Party,
United Montenegro, as well as
Democratic Front alliance (all 39 opposition MPs, out of 81 in total) and newly formed extra-parliamentary parties such as the populist
True Montenegro, the liberal
the Montenegrin and the left-wing
New Left. They demanded that the government fold for the formation of a
technical government, on the grounds that the conditions for
free and transparent elections are not in place, but also for the resignation of President Đukanovic and the chief prosecutor for organized crime, among other people. The leader and the most notable figure of the protests was
Džemal Perović, a civic activist, former MP of the
Liberal Alliance. The political backgrounds of protesters and organisers are diverse, with both left-wing, liberal, moderate, and right-wing factions voicing opposition to the government. As support to the main protests in
Podgorica, political parties
Democrats,
Demos and the
Montenegrin organized a series of separate minor protests led by its leaders
Aleksa Bečić,
Miodrag Lekić and
Vladimir Pavićević in other Montenegrin settlements, under the slogan ''"
He is done, don't be afraid!"
. On 30 March, all 39 opposition MPs in the 81-seat parliament signed “Agreement for the Future”'', proposed by the protest organizers a week before, pledging unity in the fight against the 30-year rule of Đukanović's party. Đukanović,
Marković, and other prominent ruling party representatives denied that the country was going through a political crisis, accusing protesters of being financed and organized by the opposition parties and businessman
Duško Knežević and that their goal was to destabilize the country. Organizers reject any connection with Knežević, considering him as part of the corrupt Montenegrin system. In mid-April 2019 after he stopped supporting the protests and its organizers, Knežević, in absentia formed his own civic group named "To freedom!", announcing parallel anti-government protests. Protests eventually have failed in mid-2019.
Demands Organizers accuse President
Milo Đukanović of presiding over
poverty, a loss of
human rights and
media freedom,
partocracy and
systematic corruption. The organizers' main demands are his resignation, but also of Prime Minister
Duško Marković and
his cabinet, to form a
technical government that would prepare the conditions for
free and transparent elections. They seek the resignation also of the State Prosecutor Ivica Stanković, and the chief prosecutor for organized crime Milivoje Katnić, accusing both of ignoring evidence and not prosecuting manifest corruption in the ranks of Đukanović's inner circle. Protesters later demanded irrevocable resignations of the
Montenegrin state-owned broadcaster, its council and the director general, accusing them of partiality and ruling-party propaganda. ==Electoral Laws Reform Board==