Anti-NATO Montenegrins Put Last Hopes in Dutch

After US President Donald Trump signed the NATO accession protocol for Montenegro - removing one of the last remaining obstacles to membership of the alliance - NATO foes in Montenegro are looking to The Netherlands - one of two alliance members which still did not ratify the treaty, along with Spain - to block the process.

A group of anti-NATO organisations has launched a lobbying campaign to push for the organisation of the referendum in The Netherlands, as Dutch citizens have a constitutional right to refer such decisions to a plebiscite.

The campaign has started as it becomes obvious that a referendum on NATO membership is not going to happen in Montenegro itself - where the government insists that having a majority in support of NATO in parliament is enough.

The Dutch earlier rejected an EU political, trade and defence treaty with Ukraine in  a referendum.

The Neutrality Union, a group of the organisations behind the initiative in Montenegro and the Netherlands, told BIRN that enough signatures of Dutch citizens to initiate a referendum will be submitted by the April 19 deadline. Dutch law requires 10,000 signatures to initiate a referendum.

The leader of the Union Neutrality initiative in The Netherlands, Gojko Raicevic, declined to reveal more details of planned activities in the country, however. "I do not want to comment more until we achieve something," Raicevic told BIRN.

Montenegro gained candidate country status in 2010 and is expected to become a full member of NATO this spring after 26 of the 28 members backed its membership protocol.

The Podgorica government hopes the process will end by the time of the next NATO Summit in May, though NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the...