A New Country is Born

First a note of caution. The margin of victory here is very slim, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see another Florida fiasco. However, unlike the last set of Balkan referendums, this one won’t be leading to civil war. But, it seems to have happened:

Montenegro Votes to Secede From Serbia

PODGORICA, Serbia-Montenegro — Montenegro voted to secede from Serbia and form a separate nation, erasing the last vestiges of the former Yugoslavia, state election officials said Monday.With nearly all ballots from Sunday’s referendum counted, 55.4 percent of voters chose independence after 88 years in the Balkan union. That just over the 55 percent threshold needed for the referendum to be valid under rules set by the European Union.

Long before the official results were announced, independence supporters flooded streets of the capital Podgorica and other towns, convinced of their victory.”I congratulate you on your state,” the pro-independence prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, said after polls closed. “Today, the citizens of Montenegro voted to restore their statehood.”

No doubt that the EU’s suspension of talks with Serbia over the Mladic issue helped give the independence movement an extra push. Though some note this is the last nail in Yugoslavia’s coffin, they’re forgetting Montenegro’s small Albanian neighbor: Kosovo. Kosovars are no doubt cheering today as they gain more momentum towards independence, although it has been fairly clear that that’s what they’ll get regardless. Dan Nexon isn’t sure whether it will further the causes of other breakaway states like Nagorno-Karbagh and Abkhazia, but I guess we’ll soon find out. At the very least, we know what the next new flag at the UN will be, certainly disappointing to Palestinians and Kurds among others.

But things are shaping up nicely. It also seems that the independence got a little help from protest babes, according to Publius Pundit.