The Montenegrin parliament on Wednesday failed to adopt a law to legalize same-sex unions after deputies from ruling parties representing ethnic minorities voted against it.

MPs from the main governing Democratic Party of Socialists, DPS, the Social Democrats and the Liberal Party backed the reform but those from the Bosniak Party, BS, the Croatian Civil Initiative, HGI, and the ethnic Albanian Forca, which are part of the ruling coalition, opposed the change. Opposition MPs did not vote.

LGBT activists accused opponents of the change of “destroying the democratic process in Montenegro” and its European path.

“History will remember you by that. A big thank you to everyone who was against this law. Your resistance strengthens us, your hatred will never falter, slow or stop us,” Queer Montenegro, a local NOG, said in a press statement on Wednesday.

By failing to adopt this law, the assembly sent a message that its representatives only nominally shared European and Euro-Atlantic values, and that these were not their real commitment, other NGOs, Forum Progress and LGBTIQ Social Center, said in a joint statement.

The main opposition bloc, the Democratic Front, DF, which is close to socially conservative Russia, called on the government to withdraw the law, stating that most citizens in Montenegro were against same-sex unions. “After this law a law on adoption of children by LGBT population will follow. This was the case in all EU countries. When we come to a position to decide, we will not even take this into consideration,” DF deputy Jovan Vucurovic said. Read more via Balkan Insight