Those independent-minded Montenegrins

The Reaction from England

In case you missed it, there is now (or at least soon will be) a new sovereign state in the Balkans. From the BBC:

Montenegro has narrowly voted for independence from its union with Serbia, near-complete results say.

The head of the country's electoral commission said 55.4% of voters had voted to secede from Serbia, just above the 55% required for victory.

The result is set to erase the last vestige of the former Yugoslavia.

Yes, the dream is over. Hey-now, hey-now.

The dream of Serbian hegemony in the Balkans, that is. The dream of a Greater Serbia.

After so much bloodshed in Bosnia and throughout much of the former Yugoslavia in the '90s, after the genocide, the ethnic cleansing, committed by Milosevic's thugs, Yugoslavia ends as it should, with a peaceful referendum, a democratic expression of the will of the people in the last remaining hold-out.

Good for the Montenegrins, I say. I hope self-governance works out well for them. They haven't had it since 1918.

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Given the closeness of the vote, "Montenegro's pro-Serbian unionist parties have demanded a full recount" -- see here. Apparently "19,000 votes are still in dispute".

For background, see here. For more on the break-up of Yugoslavia, see here. For my anti-eulogy of Milosevic, see here.