Montenegrin Federalist Party
Crnogorska federalistička stranka Црногорска федералистичка странка |
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Leader |
Sekula Drljević, Novica Radović, Gavro Vuković, Mihailo Ivanović |
Founder | Sekula Drljević |
Founded | 1923 |
Dissolved | 1945 |
Headquarters | Cetinje |
Ideology |
Montenegrin nationalism Federalism Decentralisation Agrarianism |
Political position | Right-wing |
The Montenegrin Federalist Party (sometimes known plainly as the Montenegrin Party) (Montenegrin: Црногорска федералистичка странка, Crnogorska federalistička stranka) or Montenegrin Peasants' Federalist Movement (Montenegrin: Crnogorski seljački federalistički pokret/Црногорски сељачки федералистички покрет) was a Montenegrin political party in the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) that stood for preservation of Montenegrin autonomy and a decentralized federalized Yugoslavia. It pursued the policy of the Greens who lost the Christmas Uprising, but on the political and social scene. Its long-term leader was Sekula Drljević.
After the abolition of divisional historical entities in 1922, when Montenegro mostly became a part of the Zeta Area, Sekula Drljević and other prominent supporters of the last, dethroned and in exile, Montenegrin King Nikola I gathered and organized a political party to pursue their goals of a distinct Montenegrin autonomy for its preservation within the Yugoslav monarchy, centering on federalization of the state. It sought for a pacifist way to resolve the Montenegrin question, as contrary to the extremist and violent Greens who sought through a minor and failing guerrilla tactics to achieve their common goals by force.
The Montenegrin Federalist Party gradually voiced in support of the self-styled Montenegrin Army in Exile, aiding them, and its members filled with their ranks after the Greens officially dispersed in 1926. The Montenegrin Party ran on elections in 1923 and 1925, but it didn't receive much support, as the Serb parties enjoyed most the support from the electorate the Montenegrin Federalists were counting on. In 1927 the party gradually lost influence, and never came out independently. It initially survived on the list of the Croatian Peasant Party and Stjepan Radić. Afterwards, the Party joined the Croatian Peasant Party and the Independent Democratic Party in their influential Peasant-Democratic Coalition and became its minor member.