APRIL 2006

MONTHLY PUBLICATION “MAGAZIN” SLOVENIA

KINGS WITHOUT KINGDOM

There are eight monarchies among the 25 EU states. Kings and queens represent these countries abroad, developing friendly relations with other people, and in different ways helping their people. All that, without sitting on the throne has been done by the Karadjordjevic family members that have returned to Belgrade after 60 years of exile.

The return of Karadjordjevic family is allowed by the decision of Federal Government in 2001, when the Royal Compound on Dedinje was returned for the use to the family of Serbian Crown Prince. Legal basis for final solution of the ownership for the famous Serbian family should have been a part of Denationalisation Law. All the property of the Karadjordjevic family was taken away overnight by AVNOJ decision on 2nd August 1947, and confiscation of palaces and other real estate by the Decree of FNRY National Assembly Presidency. With this act, return of all Karadjordjevic family members was banned. HRH Crown Prince Alexander, was born in London Claridge’s Hotel, where his parents King Peter and Queen Alexandra, Princess of Greece and Denmark lived till 1947. In order to assure that the heir to the throne be born in the Yugoslavian territory the British Government proclaimed the suite 212 Yugoslavian territory according to the instructions of the then Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The Crown Prince was christened in Westminster Abbey in presence of his godparents King George VI and his daughter, Princess at that time, now the Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth II. Since King Peter II never abdicated and the Crown is being passed automatically to the oldest son, after the King’s death in Denver, USA, in summer of 1970, the Crown Prince Alexander in fact became the King, but he himself decided to use the title of the Crown Prince. Alexander studied in Switzerland, at the Military Academy in USA, in Scotland and England, as well as at the Royal Academy of Great Britain. As an officer of the British Army he served in the Middle East, in Italy and Germany, and left the service in 1972.

Courageous fighters

The Military service of the heir to the throne can easily trick someone who is not so familiar with the Karadjordjevic Dynasty. They were famous in their history as great and fearless fighters. That was the characteristic of the Obrenovic Family too, which had five sovereigns of Serbia, just like the Karadjordjevic Family did. The Obrenovic’s were on the Throne of Princedom and Kingdom of Serbia, and were attached to the mother land just like the Dynasty Petrovic was attached to Montenegro. The Karadjordjevic’s were the only ones who became sovereigns of Croatians and Slovenians. While the Obrenovic’s were devoted to the idea of Serbian character, idea of south slavistic character and later Yugoslavian idea is connected to Karadjordjevic’s. That is the major difference between the two ruling dynasties. Chronicles present Karadjordjevic to be carriers of the heroic, and Obrenovic of a state creating idea. The latter were, according to many, better sovereigns, but they were coming to power very young, which is obvious if one takes a look at their “decisions”. Besides, there were differences in the wealth of these families, of which there are still different stories to hear. Professor of Faculty of Philosophy Dragoljub Zivojinovic clarifies all those stories with these words: “it is not right that Prince Milos was the richest sovereign in the Balkans, and also we could not claim that King Alexander the Unifier was the richest monarch of the Europe of that time”. He adds that the founder of the Dynasty Karadjordjevic was not a pragmatic and that his sons used to live in the exile thanks to the mercy of the Russian nobility. The next one Prince Alexander became the eminent officer and worked on buying the family property. It is he who could be considered the founder of the wealth of the Yugoslav King. After the WW1, he was receiving the appanage of 20 million dinars in Swiss francs from the Parliament. There were also shares of stock worth several millions of dinars …The English Daily Mail wrote only couple of months after the assassination in Marseilles in 1934: “King Alexander was the richest monarch in Europe. The cash he was saving at the foreign accounts is estimated to six million sterling pounds. He was the owner of two gold mines, he received income from the French owners of the third gold mine in Bor, out of which the French had dug 16 tons of gold and 32 tons of silver in 1935”. Great amounts of money were put aside for building of Palaces, hotels, villas and for the building of the Church in Oplenac where the passed away members of the family rest in peace. Bilje, Han Pijesak, Kavadarci, Milocer, Bled, Bohinj – all these villas are the most representative and mainly the protocol objects of the newly constituted states – were build from his own funds because he wished to leave something behind himself, so that people would remember him. “King was not rich, but the people were hardworking”, they used to say. According to the connoisseurs, Karadjordjevic’s lived a soldierly modest life. What they were building and leaving behind them was not so much for them, as much it was for the others. In their two centuries long history Karadjordjevic’s lost their wealth several times and started again from nothing.

Crown Prince Alexander Karadjordjevic with his sons from his first marriage with the Brazilian Princess Maria da Gloria. Hereditary Prince Peter (second from left) was born in Chicago in 1980. His two brothers, twins Philip and Alexander were born two years later, also in USA. They all speak English, Spanish and French, while learning Serbian. They studied at prestigious universities abroad, but also undertook jobs. They all love snowboarding.  

Some of malicious critics spoke of them to be “arrogant rulers, bohemians, gamblers and quarrelsome persons”. On the other hand, the supporters of Karadjordjevic’s claimed that members of the Royal Family have “superb feeling for family, economy, charity, humanitarian work and donations”. This is exactly what best describes Crown Prince Alexander and his wife. In Serbia there are on going polemics about the point of restoration of monarchist political system.

“For rulers we had great tyrants like Milos Obrenovic and Nikola I of Montenegro, but other kings were not carriers of parliamentarism, justice and equality in society, hence the return of the monarchy would divide the Serbian society further more only “- thinks sociologists Desimir Tosic and adds: “Karadjordjevic were indeed great battle leaders, but they were not attached to democracy. King Alexander had promised to the people in Yugoslavia that he will bring the democratic system, and on 6 April 1929 he broke the people’s faith and introduced dictatorship”.

Pleaders for the monarchy also have the strong arguments: “Monarchy will help the renewal of the Serbian identity. Monarchy alone really does not solve the question of democracy, but it is also perfectly clear that today it would be impossible to restore the monarchy that would enable the king to become a tyrant. The British laws and Parliament set boundaries for Cromwell. I am led to have more trust in a person with a family tree than to someone who fell from the Mars, says one of the pleaders for the monarchist idea and Professor at the Law Faculty Radolav Stojanovic. In favour of this are the events in the recent political history of Serbia: in 1989, the Crown Prince actively joined the fight against the authoritarian regime of Slobodan Milosevic.

He had meetings with democratic opposition and pleaded for democratic transfiguration of society. He is pleading for it today as well, but from his home in Belgrade, where he lives since 2001

He had meetings with democratic opposition and pleaded for democratic transfiguration of society. He is pleading for it today as well, but from his home in Belgrade, where he lives since 2001. More about it you can read in exclusive interview with Alexander Karadjordjevic.

 
The Crown Prince first stepped to Serbian soil in 1991. At the rallies of the opposition of that time and hundreds of thousands monarchy supporters greeted him with much enthusiasm: while there are those who’s opinion is that it is a way to enable long-lasting political stability and economical progress, others are of opinion that the Royal Family in its own time abandoned the people in the worst days and took shelter abroad handing the people to the German occupation’s mercy. 

The Crown Prince with Crown Princess Katherine travel the world a lot and pleads for the help for their country. In the picture: with the General Secretary of UN Kofi Annan.

 
The Crown Prince with the richest man on Earth, Bill Gates: Hands shake for hello. The fact that after Great Britain, China and India Microsoft opened the fourth centre for technology development in Belgrade speaks enough. Microsoft covers the Middle and South Eastern Europe from the heart of the Balkans.

 
The White Palace is a beautiful structure of architecture, built in 1934 where the representative apartments and paintings of great artists are located.

 
The Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine are welcomed in the Palaces of Europe. In the picture: the Royal Wedding of the Danish Crown Prince Frederic and Australian Mary Elisabeth Donaldson, in Copenhagen

EXCLUSIVELY: alexander II Karadjordjevic

We came back not to take but rather to give

MAGAZIN: Do you have any friends in Slovenia and have you ever been here? If not, would you like to visit Slovenia?

Sadly, I have never been to Slovenia. It would be a pleasure to visit beautiful Slovenia. Over the years, I met many Slovenians and deeply value their friendship. It is also nice that several Slovenian companies have come to invest in Serbia and to create jobs, I am grateful for this.

MAGAZIN: To what extent your personal life has changed after your decision to return to Serbia during the summer 2001? Do you have any intention to take more active role in political life of Serbia?

It was not my intention to become a politician but rather to be a meeting point of unity and continuity. Many people have asked me if I wanted to go into politics and my answer is that we need a neutral person like a constitutional parliamentary monarch who will not take sides, but rather be the unifying factor. In a constitutional parliamentary monarchy, the government is elected in democratic elections and the monarch provides the meeting point of stability, unity and continuity. This works very well in many European Union countries and not to forget Japan and so on. Our people deserve stability and our politicians must be united for the common good of the country and not enter into conflict or argument therefore weakening the country.

MAGAZIN: There is a number of Monarchy supporters in Serbia, but, majority is pro-republican. Do you think that public opinion can be changed and is it possible to regain the Monarchy in Serbia?

The monarchy during our regimes or dictatorships was vilified and spat upon by propaganda. Whenever there was a scandal or corruption, the monarchy was used as a fog screen. After more than 55 years when I came back with my family to my grandfather’s and father’s home and there was no one that had a valid reason against it. My human rights were violated when I was only two years old in 1947 when Kardelj signed a decree making me an enemy of the state – I must have been very dangerous to have my nationality removed and my rights at that ripe old age. Today in view of all the propaganda, the feeling for constitutional parliamentary monarchy is apparent and alive. Even though there has not been any campaign, I see the people throughout Serbia as very warm and interested in the institution and this crosses the party political divide. We came back not to take but rather to give and of course, I have had the experience to have lived in democratic countries which I think is important knowledge to share with the people.

MAGAZIN: What is the role of Royal Families in Europe (Spain, Norway etc)? What is the advantage of Monarchies comparing to republics in Europe?

There are good republics and good constitutional monarchies. Providing the head of state is neutral and not active in party politics both have merit. The example of Spain’s transition from a dictatorship to democracy and member of the European Union under the unifying factor of constitutional monarchy that binds Spain together is a fine example of a modern successful democratic country. The role of the monarchy and the immediate family is to work united in the best interest of the country allowing the democratically elected government through the prime minister to rule the country without interference from another entity. The monarch reigns.

MAGAZIN: What are the experiences of European Royal Families that you know and what can be implemented in Serbia?

There are many examples of constitutional parliamentary monarchy within the European Union and beyond such as Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden. We must not forget Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Norway, Australia and Canada. All are a very fine example of stability, unity and continuity. The experiences of all the countries I mention are an example to us and we can most certainly emulate and study each case.

MAGAZIN: What has changed regarding the role of Monarch during the centuries and what skills are needed?

Monarchs have evolved over the centuries into the defenders of democracy and stability. There is no doubt that republics have done the same. There have been abuses of power and scandals here and there, but the role and example of constitutional parliamentary monarchies is a most interesting one to look at.

MAGAZIN: What are your personal experiences after five years in Serbia? Do you feel that you are at home when you come back from abroad to Serbia?

It was emotional to come back to ones roots. My father was home sick and all the things he told me were in my mind when we moved into his home. I must say that since we are talking about this my father loved Slovenia very much and always had fond memories of his youth there. I feel very much at home here and everyone has been so good to my family and me.

MAGAZIN: What was the hardest for you while you lived abroad? What memories gave you your father His Majesty King Peter II?

The hardest for me was to see my poor father suffer from homesickness and illness. I have very fond memories of my father and playing with him and listening to his experiences. I remember how much my father loved mechanical things, we would take some toys apart and sometimes we would put them back together and they would not work. I am sorry that my father never returned home.

MAGAZIN: What was the hardest thing for you when you came back to Serbia? How did people accept you? What are the questions you get from the ordinary, common people?

The hardest for my wife and me was the horror of the conflict in the Former Yugoslavia: death, injury, destruction, refugees, ethnic cleansing and total madness. The terrible use of negative religion and negative nationalism for the purpose power against the people. We visited many places and saw poverty and misery. That is why my wife is working hard with humanitarian projects. We respect all religions and ethnic origin so we wish to support everyone. Everyone accepted us and we feel very happy. We get many questions during our travels and from people who visit us. There are many appeals for help and many requests to visit so many places.

MAGAZIN: Do your sons love Belgrade and do they find Serbian mentality and language strange?

The language is not easy and not a piece of cake, but we try to move ahead and learn something new everyday. The boys enjoy being in Belgrade and have many friends and they love snowboarding in Kopaonik, maybe one day they will go to Slovenia to snowboard. We are part of our mentality and inheritance.

MAGAZIN: What is your personal opinion regarding position of Western Balkan and former Yugoslavia in ten years from now? Is everybody going to be in EU? Is it possible to gain total normalization of relations after the bloodshed in former Yugoslavia?

With some hard work and hope, we should all be sooner than later members of the European Union and work together for the common good of everyone regardless of their religion or ethnic origin. We need each other to survive in the modern competitive world we work to create good market economies that in turn fund good social services. We all leave in a beautiful part of Europe that deserves to have a great future after so much tragedy and pain.