HRH Crown Prince Alexander II Interview for Ilustrovana Politika weekly,
published on December 30, 2006

 Can you feel the holiday fever?

Oh, yes. It was too warm for this time of the year, but regardless of all, this is one of the most beautiful periods of the year. We have just celebrated our patron saint day, St. Andrew, and we are now looking forward to two Christmases. While your readers get ready for the New Year’s Eve, we will be in Athens, celebrating Greek Christmas and exchanging presents. Then we have Serbian Christmas on January 7. And more presents. My sons will come to Belgrade for Christmas Eve and Christmas, and then we will all together go to Kopaonik. I hope there will be enough snow.

What do you find most enjoying during the holiday season?

Gathering of the family. We will ski in Kopaonik. The boys snowboard, my wife goes for long walks in fresh air. She has friends there; they have coffee and listen to the music. These are nice moments, positive mood. Then we all have roast lamb for dinner. When it snows, it is beautiful here in Dedinje as well. It is very peaceful. We always spend Christmas here, and then we go skiing afterwards.

What effect does cold weather and approaching of the holidays have on you?

I lived in Brazil and it was strange to celebrate Christmas in hot weather. We had artificial Christmas trees with cotton on it, pretending to be snow. Right after decorating the Christmas tree, we would go to the beach to sun bathe and swim. They also have Santa Clauses in their traditional outfit and they sweat a lot in the heat.

I know that your sons tried to teach you snowboarding. Still without success?

I stay with my two skis. Recently I visited Slovenia and when we were in Elan ski factory, I received one pair of beautiful new skis, and I can’t wait to try them. They are very colourful, just like Christmas spirit. Kopaonik has become a tradition for our family.

Where will you spend the New Year’s?

Regular New Year’s we will spend in Athens, with my wife’s parents. They are wonderful people, but they are very old. They were always in good health and now we want to give them some more strength and love with our presence. My wife worries a lot about them. We will spend Serbian New Year’s in Belgrade, since we have to be back by then because of the boys. They will be here with friends, but very soon they will have to return to their business and plans.

Is there any difference for you between Christmas and New Year’s?

Christmas has a special meaning because it is a celebration of Christ’s birth, great joy. On the morning of January 7 we will have the well-wisher here in our home who will sing and receive gifts. Trees inside and outside are full of lights. On the Christmas Eve we ignite the Yule log. The priest comes and all in all that evening is very beautiful. For New Year’s, everyone hopes that the next year will be better than the last, we have dinner, have fun and drink Champaign at midnight. It doesn’t really matter whether you are at home or anywhere else. Good company is what matters.

How did you spend Christmas when you were a child?

In those years my parents would come visit me in Gstad, Switzerland, where I was in boarding school. My grandmother also used to come often. I have nicer memories of Christmases in the Alps than in the cities. We would stay in the Palace Hotel. In those years they had real candles on Christmas trees, which was quite dangerous. They would revisit me every year in March. We used to take long walks in the surroundings. The hotel is still there, but it looks different. Mom and dad always had the same room, on the corner of the hotel, with the view of the mountains and woods. My mother was a great skier; she learned to ski in St. Moritz. My dad also used to ski, but I am afraid that he wasn’t as talented as my mom. But he had a great sense of humour, we laughed a lot.

Do you go there sometimes?

Yes, sometimes the boys come with me, if their obligations allow them. In the basement of the hotel we have cheese fondue, a mixture of several kinds of cheese and a little garlic that you eat with hot bread and brandy called kirsch, because it helps digest the cheese. Otherwise, it would turn into a golf ball in your stomach and you wouldn’t be able to sleep all night. They used to make it in the times when I was a kid. They also have fondue bourguignon with meat, but I prefer the one with cheese, which is not good for my fitness.

What else did you do with your parents for Christmas?

Those were the times of the first cinema in Gstad, and that was a big attraction. We used to see films together, and I would be sitting between my parents. Around that time they introduced electric galleries, as they used to call them. The hotel must have imported them from America. They had an electronic rifle that you would use to shoot at the bear-shaped target. The bear was making a lot of noise. As a child I used to spend a lot of time at those venues. I also liked to play ping-pong. Mom and dad couldn’t get me away from the table to go to lunch.

How long were these Christmas family gatherings?

Around ten days. I would always cry at the time of their departure. My father was also very sad at those moments, since all that was happening just several years after the war, after he was expelled from the country. He was only 17 when that happened. He used to tell me about Yugoslavia and that made him sad. That is why I tried to give my sons a real home in London and make their Christmases happier than mine were. My wife, Princess Katherine, contributed a lot to this. Usually we would decorate the room with Christmas balls and angels, and on the walls we would put the Christmas cards that we received that year. The boys had the task to climb the ladder and decorate the tree, and sometimes they would talk so much that they would forget to decorate the bottom part. They loved sprinklers as well.

Completely different from your childhood?

My parents didn’t have a home, and that is one of the horrible consequences of exile. My father always hoped that he would be able to return to his homeland, but that never happened. My parents wanted to protect me from constant moving by putting me in the boarding school for eight years. They lived in Paris, in southern France, in Rome… as if they were in an infinite circle. Sad.

What did you get for Christmas from them?

I liked model aeroplanes the most. I wasn’t very tidy, and I left the glue all over the place. The kit would include the colours as well, to paint these little planes, but beside them, I used to paint everything else, from clothes to furniture. I really liked those model planes, which were a new thing at those times. Sometimes my father would help me assemble them. My sons liked Lego.

You are the only child. Do you miss having a brother or sister?

Yes, I do, but I never asked my parents why I don’t have sister of brother. My mother never spoke to me about it, but in her book I read that she had had a miscarriage. It’s a pity. I have school friends who live around the world now. Some of them came to Belgrade last year for my birthday; one from Hong Kong, another one from Iran, the third from England, and the fourth from Geneva.

Christmases have changed when you left your parents’ home?

Mother of my sons and I went to South America. Later I spent Christmases with Katherine in Greece – Athens is beautiful at that time of the year. We have many friends there. I have spent some Christmases with Prince Tomislav’s in-laws in Germany, and German Christmases have a lot of music and peculiar ceremonial cakes and sweets.

Have your Christmas habits changed when you moved to London?

We have always had turkey for supper, and then I thought I’d join the Save the Turkeys Association… I am joking, but the holiday season is the season of real massacre of turkeys, especially for Thanksgiving in the US. At that time we have switched to duck and roast pork. The British have a very tasty Christmas pudding. They pour brandy over and ignite it! Oh! It tastes perfect. But, you have to be careful not to catch fire and end up roasted for Christmas.

Are you happy now? Do you miss anything?

I am very happy. You know, my father has told me a lot about this palace, and described everything. When I arrived to Serbia just a few days after October 5 2000, President Koštunica told me that I had to see the Royal Compound. I told him that the purpose of my visit was to congratulate him and the people for the democratic revolution and the future of the country that had just started, and that I would visit the Palace some other time. On that occasion I visited Niš, Kragujevac and Kraljevo. In December I came back, and it was then that I set my foot in the Palace for the first time. It was shocking. I tried to visit it in 1992, but they wouldn’t allow me. All other members of the family were allowed to visit it except for me. Divide and conquer. I worked against the regime and they quarantined me. That is why the visit in 2000 was fantastic; the beauty of the complex becharmed me. My wife asked me in which palace would we stay, and I said, in the Royal Palace, because that is where my father lived. Then she asked which room we will use as our bedroom. I know that as well, I replied, my father described it to me. I found it right away.

You did not have any photographs of those rooms before 2000?

When the bombing started on April 6, 1941, the government wanted to move the Royal Family as quickly as possible to Athens. They left without practically anything, in a small plane, leaving the photographs behind in Belgrade, among many other things. And then the stories about gold bars and Swiss bank accounts started to proliferate! That would have been fantastic! Only if it were true! Actually, the communists lived here like kings. I hope that this country and people are heading towards a better future, and that the whole nation will be as one. I hope it to be a country in which people respect each other, and where a few idiots will not ruin our present and future in the prime time news. I am proud to be orthodox, but everyone should be able to exercise his or her faith or to be an atheist. The beauty lies in the differences. And long lasting peace. For us in Serbia, World War II has ended on October 5, 2000. We were hurt with bombing, criminal bombing. This is the new beginning. We can not afford to lose lives again and to work to our damage.

Are you satisfied with what you have done?

I feel good about bringing some investors to Serbia, I have also established the Foundation that fosters education, that delivers scholarships, and I also feel good for having helped improve the image of Serbia abroad.

What are your plans in the near future?

I hope that we will have the new government after the elections. I don’t take sides, but whoever wins, I hope to help him bring more investors, because opening of new jobs is what we need the most. We need several thousand foreign investors. I dream of Serbia in the united Europe, not as an isolated country. This is not political thinking, this is normal thinking. If we don’t join the Union, we will be like an isolated island in the Pacific with the turbulent ocean around us.

What about monarchy in Serbia?

I travel quite a lot around the country and people ask me the same question. I tell them that monarchy would be good for the future of the country, because the head of state would be neutral, while the democratically elected Prime Minister and his cabinet would have a time limited mandate to run the country. That gives stability. I think that our politicians understand how it functions, and that it functions well in many countries. I believe that the time in front of us will bring new information and knowledge to the people, and that if public discussions are organized, they will understand it as well. Citizens have the right to know and get answers to their questions. We have been living in democracy for six years now, but we still have a lot to do. Perhaps everything could have been done faster, but we shouldn’t be impatient. People are in the first place.

What about future of your sons? Would they like to move here and live in Serbia?

Yes they would. But just as our scholars, who are learning how things work abroad, they are acquiring experience. Education, job, experience, and then return to the country to share the knowledge back home. My sons come here often. Peter is trying to find his place in the market with the job he thought of in the area of graphic design. He has some clients already, but at the moment he is negotiating with some new ones. Big names, I can’t tell yet. He is constantly travelling between London and Spain. Philip graduated and is having job interviews now. He is in finances, and with God’s help one of those interviews is going to be successful. All these interviews were different. He was surprised when he was asked to do a math test for a job in the bank! I would like him to help us in our Career Centre here in Belgrade, where we train graduates how to present themselves to the employers, how to prepare the CV… Alexander is in California, he wants to get a master degree in communications and media and is studying a lot. He called and asked me whether I could buy him a larger desk and Apple computer, since his university uses only those. They would all love to do something in Serbia, but are afraid that they would receive too much media attention. Last year a magazine published that they published ads to find wives, which was completely opposite of what they were saying. They didn’t like it at all and they think that serious business requires concentration, not scandals.

Would you like to be a grandfather?

Oh, I am too young for that! I’m joking, why not? My wife is a grandmother, a wonderful grandmother, and her daughter’s sons visit us often. My sons are free to be with whomever they want; they are very friendly, not stiff, so let’s wait and see. Perhaps they surprise us one day with some nice girl.

When will the whole Karadjordjević family get together for a dinner?

That would be nice, I am all for it, but everyone has to understand that there is tradition and family rules, just as in a country. There is the head of family and rules that have to be respected. I would never contradict my father, neither would he contradict his, King Alexander, and that’s how things go. Discipline. I learned discipline in school, in the army and later working all my life. That is an important foundation. My sons have finished schools, are acquiring experience, are doing useful things. Conversation is always useful. It was good that we went to the memorial service to Prince Paul; princess Elisabeth was there, Prince Alexander, Princess Linda, her children. Wonderful opportunity. But you also have to be careful when choosing people you are surrounded with. And with information they feed you with. It is very important to know that. All of us at dinner – that is a wonderful dream.