Podgorica Assembly

The Great People's Assembly of the Serb People in Montenegro (Serbian: Велика народна скупштина српског народа у Црној Гори, romanized: Velika narodna skupština srpskog naroda u Crnoj Gori), commonly known as the Podgorica Assembly (Подгоричка скупштина, Podgorička skupština), was an ad hoc popular assembly convened in November 1918, after the end of World War I in the Kingdom of Montenegro. The assembly was organized by a committee supported by and coordinating with the government of the Kingdom of Serbia. The committee convened the assembly with the aim of facilitating an unconditional union of Montenegro and Serbia and removing king Nikola I of Montenegro from the throne. The unification preceded the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes as a unified state of South Slavs by mere days. The unification was justified by the need to establish a single Serbian state for all Serbs, including Montenegro whose population as well as its king felt that it belonged to the Serbian nation and largely supported the unification.

The manner in which the Podgorica Assembly was elected and its resolutions on unification and the removal of King Nikola from the throne were criticized as unlawful and illegitimate by the king, his government-in-exile situated in France at the time, and opponents of the unconditional union in the country known as the Greens. The Greens, earning that moniker after the color of paper used to print Podgorica Assembly candidate lists containing pro-independence candidates, supported either full independence of Montenegro or a federation or a confederation with Serbia and other South Slavs where Montenegro would be an equal partner.

Following the resolutions on the unification and the deposition of the king, the Greens resorted to insurrection to fight pro-unionist Whites, likewise named after the color of the paper used to print Podgorica Assembly pro-unionist candidate lists. The ultimately unsuccessful insurrection became known as the Christmas Uprising. Some of the Greens continued their political struggle for a federal common South Slavic state through the establishment of the Montenegrin Federalist Party in 1923. The issue of the legality and legitimacy of the Podgorica Assembly has been debated since its convening. The resolution of the Podgorica Assembly was annulled by the Parliament of Montenegro following the breakup of Yugoslavia and the 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum. In its resolution, the parliament declared the Podgorica Assembly unlawful and illegitimate, describing the unification resulting from the Podgorica Assembly as a coup d'état.