Montenegro's authorities raised a monument to former Yugoslav communist leader Marshal Josip Broz Tito in the coastal town of Tivat and planned another one in the capital Podgorica, the Beta news agency reported.

The Tivat monument was raised by the General Consulate of the Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia NGO, on Thursday to mark the November 29 national holiday in the former country.

The Montenegrin Government allowed its Defence Ministry to donate to Podgorica Tito’s bust made by a prominent Croatian sculptor Antun Augustincic, to display it in a city park.

The monument triggered fierce reactions from a part of the Montenegrin opposition.

Tito ruled post-WW II Yugoslavia from 1946 until his death in 1980. Only 11 years later, Yugoslavia disintegrated in a bloody conflict.

During the war, he was the leader of the Partisan movement fighting against the German occupation.

In 1948, Tito broke ties with the then Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and won support from the West.

He was one of the founders of the non-alignment movement in Belgrade in 1961.