The axis of Serbian political movements lies with the Serbian Orthodox Church!

It is known from ethnogenesis that Serbian Orthodoxy is closely connected with the emergence of the Serbian state and Serbian politics in the Balkans. Serbian Orthodox Church represents the axis of political movements in Serbia, both inside and outside. As in crises and wars, but also in peace, the word and strategy of Serbian Orthodox Church comes last. It takes this position with great pride in relation to Serbian politics, even though massacres and genocides were committed with its blessing in the space of the states of the former Yugoslavia. All this with the aim of preserving the national identity of Serbia.

The relations of Serbian Orthodox Church with the leading political parliaments of Serbia experienced various moments of adjustment, but never went beyond coordination for the protection, as they say Serbs. The relationship of Serbian Orthodox Church with the current President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, is divided into two periods. At the time of Patriarch Irinej and Patriarch Porfirije!

In 2013, when Aleksandar Vučić was the first vice president of the Serbian government, the Serbian Orthodox Church had voiced a number of criticisms of Vučić, so he was invited to the meeting of the Serbian Orthodox Church Assembly to inform and explain church leaders on the Brussels Agreement between Serbia and Kosovo. Vučić was afraid of Serbian Orthodox Church’s actions, as he occasionally clarified his position on the 2013 Brussels Agreement in front of Serbian Orthodox Church. At this point it should be added that the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, It’s not that there were reports that needed to be singled out with Aleksandar Vučić. When Patriarch Irinej died in 2020, the main interest was for Aleksandar Vučić to give the maximum of his influence in the selection of the new Patriarch of Serbian Orthodox Church.

After the selection, Metropolitan of Zagreb and Ljubljana, former monk of Dečani monastery, graduated in Athens in 2004, Prvoslav Perić, came to be the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church and was appointed as Patriarch Porfirije. Patriarch Porfirije was certainly the choice that also responded to the political circumstances in which Serbia found itself. The election of the new Patriarch Porfirije of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2021 also justified an analysis of the newspaper Figaro, which documented the framework of influence exerted by the state leadership regarding the elections in the Serbian Orthodox Church. Taking into account the influence of the Church, it is crucial for Aleksandar Vučić to have someone loyal to him at the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Figaro stated.

At the first session of the Assembly of the Serbian Orthodox Church in May 2021, chaired by the newly elected Patriarch Porfirije, the President of Serbia, Vučić, organized a luncheon for all the archbishops at the Deputies’ Club in Dedinje. This moment represented a novelty in the ritualization of the symphony of the Serbian state and the Serbian Church. President Vučić tried to continue this tradition, but not all archbishops followed him. Particularly absent was Bishop Grigorie, who is known as the one who most often shows discontent and expresses criticism.

This whole atmosphere of Serbian Orthodox Church relationship with the state leadership aims to continue the tradition of political cooperation between them. Serbian Orthodox Church has never been just a church dedicated to religion, but has closely coordinated politics with the government. Meetings between the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, the President of Entity Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Milorad Dodik, and the Patriarch of Serbian Orthodox Church, Porfirije, take place repeatedly and aim to maintain the axis of Serbian politics. The current closeness of Serbian leaders and the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as successive meetings, are aimed at completing the construction of the “All-Serbian Shrine” promised by Aleksandër Vučić to Serbian Orthodox Church. The “All-Serbian Shrine” includes the Balkan countries where Serbs live.

In the course of maintaining the axis of Serbian politics, the Serbian Orthodox Church is engaged in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, but also in Northern Macedonia, although the latter recognizes the independence of the Macedonian Orthodox Church. In Montenegro, the late Bishop Amfilohije, who died of Covid-19, was maximally involved. The protests organized in Montenegro and the support of former Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic by Serbian Orthodox Church brought closer the signing of the Basic Agreement between Montenegro and the Serbian Orthodox Church. Through this agreement, in addition to its existence in Montenegro, Serbian Orthodox Church guarantees political power in this country. It suppressed the Montenegrin Orthodox Church to the extreme and made each of its actions independent of the Montenegrin state. Although neither Serbia nor Serbian Orthodox Church recognized its independence, Kosovo was obliged to grant a special status to the Serbian Orthodox Church in the last agreement between Aleksandar Vučić and Albin Kurti, concluded in Brussels this year. A status that seems to exceed even the current competences of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Kosovo with the Ahtisaari Plan..All these maneuvers are in line with the official statements of the leaders of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Porfirije had declared at the beginning of his career as the leader of Serbian Orthodox Church: “The Church strongly protects the Serbian people and preserves the language and culture where the Serbian state is absent”./The Geopost/