President of Montenegro between 2003 and 2018: Who is Filip Vujanović?

Filip Vujanović was elected President of Montenegro on 11 May 2003. Vujanović, former speaker of the Montenegrin Parliament and former prime minister, became the first president of the Republic of Montenegro since the founding of Serbia-Montenegro.

Vujanović took the presidency by receiving the majority of the votes in the last elections, which was the third attempt within six months in 2003. Two previous elections were canceled due to low voting rates.

Born in Belgrade on September 1, 1954, Vujanović graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade in 1978. Between 1978 and 1981, Vujanović served as an official member of a local court and later of the Belgrade District Court.

Vujanović, who has been living and working in Podgorica since 1981, served as secretary general of the Podgorica District Court for a short time. He then worked as a lawyer until March 1993, when he took the post of Minister of Justice in the cabinet formed by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.

Vujanović continued his duty at the Ministry of Justice until May 1995, when he was appointed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Filip Vujanović served in the cabinet as Minister of Internal Affairs until February 1998. Months after the presidential elections held in Montenegro in July 1997, Djukanovic proposed that Vujanović be appointed prime minister.

Vujanović served as prime minister from February 1998 until April 2002, when he resigned due to a government crisis. The cause of the crisis was the agreement with Serbia, which envisaged the reshaping of the country as a union consisting of two independent states.

In the parliamentary elections held in October 2002, Vujanović became the speaker of the parliament. Vujanović also served as deputy leader of the pro-independence Socialist Democratic Party led by Djukanovic.

In his statement following his victory in the presidential elections, Vujanović stated that participation in the EU and NATO's Partnership for Peace program were the most important priorities for them. "I will be the president of every citizen who will take the Republic of Montenegro to the EU," said Vujanović, and also promised the people who supported him that he would propose a referendum on independence three years later.

Milo Djukanovic, who won the presidential election in Montenegro on April 15, 2018, took over his position from Filip Vujanovic with the oath ceremony.

Djukanovic won the presidential election held on April 15, in which 7 candidates competed, and had the right to rule the country for 5 years.

Djukanovic, a pro-Western 56-year-old who previously served as prime minister for six terms and as president for one term, was elected president in the first round with 53.9 percent of the votes.

Since Djukanovic received over 50 percent of the votes in the first round, the participation rate in the election, which did not go to a second round, was 63.9 percent.

Vujanović is married and has two daughters and a son.