Momir Bulatović (Serbian Cyrillic: Момир Булатовић) (born September 21, 1956 in Belgrade, Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia) is a former President of Montenegro and Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He was also the leader of the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro.
Early life
Bulatović was born in Belgrade to a family of a JNA officer from Montenegro. Due to the nature of his father's job, the family frequently relocated throughout the former Yugoslavia. A few years following Momir's birth, the family settled in Zadar, Croatia where he would complete his primary and secondary education.
In 1975, Bulatović went to Titograd to study at the Veljko Vlahović University's Faculty of Economy.
Political career
In the late 1980s Bulatović's political career made an upstart as he campaigned alongside his political ally Serbian communist Slobodan Milošević in a coup against the political leadership of the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. Bulatović endorsed actions to protect Serbs and Montenegrins in Kosovo who claimed they were being abused by Albanian separatists. He advocated close alliance with Serbia due to the historic and cultural links of Montenegro to Serbia. Both he and Milošević endorsed reducing Kosovo's autonomy. In 1988, pro-Milošević supporters overthrew the Communist leadership of Montenegro and Bulatović was installed as the new leader of the League of Communists of Montenegro.
In the 1990 Yugoslav Communist party's congress, Bulatović supported Milošević's agenda of changing the party's voting system to a one-member-one-vote system which would give a numerical majority to Serbs. Montenegro also supported Serbia in opposing all reforms by Slovenia that were deemed to be intended to decentralize power to the republics. The Slovenian and Croatian communist factions abdicated the party in what they saw as an attempt by Milošević to create Serb hegemony in the party. The League of Communists collapsed, Bulatović followed the political changes in the other republics and made Montenegro a multi-party democracy and formed the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro formed from ex-Communist members.
Bulatović served as the president of Montenegro from December 23, 1990 until January 15, 1998. During his tenure, he closely supported the policies of Milošević of regaining of Serb territories from the separating republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia. During the Croatian War, his government endorsed the annexation of Dubrovnik to Montenegro, claiming that it was historically linked to Montenegro.[1]
He lost presidential elections in Montenegro in October 1997 to his former ally, Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, who kicked him out of the Democratic Party of Socialists of Montenegro (DPS CG). A large faction left the DPS CG with Bulatović to form the Socialist People's Party of Montenegro (SNP CG). At first they both were strong supporters of Slobodan Milošević but while Đukanović began to criticize Milosevic, Bulatović continued supporting him, and was appointed to be Prime Minister of Yugoslavia by Milošević on May 18, 1998, to replace Radoje Kontić. He resigned on October 9, 2000, shortly after Milošević was removed from office. Bulatović wrote a memoir called “The Rules of Keeping Silent” in which he criticizes his former allies, including the final president of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marović.
After the fall of Milošević, Predrag Bulatović took over the leadership of the SNP CG, democratizing it. Momir led a new faction away from the SNP CG, forming a new party called the People's Socialist Party of Montenegro.
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