TOP INTERVIEWS



Interview with
HRH Crown Prince
Aleksandar II of Yugoslavia and Serbia

February 12th, 2002

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Could you give us a brief overview of the history of the royal family and of your experience of coming back to Yugoslavia this year?

My House was established at the turn of the 19th century, when my ancestor George Petrovich, who was known as "Black George" (or "Karageorge", whence the name of the House), started the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottomans who were occupying these lands, and was successful. But to come more forward into modern history, the 20th century started with the accession of my great-grandfather, King Peter I, who really was a father of modern democracy in Serbia. He translated John Stuart Mill's "The Liberty" into Serbian, and that was warmly received. He was an extraordinary King in a sense that he truly believed in the idea of modern constitutional monarchy. He was an old gentleman, but the advanced age didn't stop him. We then had several successive tragedies that took place: two Balkan Wars, the First World War…. Peter's son, King Alexander I, my grandfather, was during the years of the war Regent of the Realm before acceding the Throne. He was the one who created the country Yugoslavia in 1918 as one Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. In early 1930-ies, unfortunately, we suffered (just like rest of Europe) from the rise of fascism. That was time of unrest. In 1934 King Alexander I was assassinated, in Marseilles, during a state visit, along with the French foreign Minister.

At the outbreak of the armed conflict Yugoslav situation was extremely delicate. Yugoslavia was kept out of the Second World War up until March 1941 when the nation decided to revolt against the treaty that was signed with Germany. The concept followed by Prince Paul, who was Regent of the Realm during my father's minority, was to protect the unity of the country and to avoid being drawn into the conflict. But that didn't quite work. My father became King Peter II in full right, even though he was underage, on March 27th 1941. On April 6th of the Germans bombed us, and this drew the whole country into the Second World War. German forces occupied the country, and the Royal Family went to exile. The Government decided to move, first to Greece, and afterwards to what was Palestine at the time, Egypt, and eventually to London to join all the other governments in exile. My father was the head of state, and he led the country from London. During the Second World War there were two rival groups who opposed German occupation: the Loyalists, led by my father, and the communist partisans under Tito. At the end of the war, the communists took over, and dictatorship was imposed upon the country. Monarchy was abolished, although there was no referendum and parliamentary elections were outright rigged. My father never abdicated. The communist rule, under motley disguises, endured for 55 years. It was only with the events of October 5th 2000 that this all came to an end, although after many stops and starts. We basically were the last country in Europe to throw away the reigns of the dictatorship and cunningly dangerous political leadership. Today we are rounding into revival, and I'm back as a Chief of the House, in the rightful abode, as one might put it. Politically, I'm not taking sides, respecting everybody.

The Royal family is engaged in numerous humanitarian projects. Could you tell us more about your humanitarian engagements?

It's always been my belief and my wife's, who is much more involved than I am in helping everyone, that if you assist everybody, you get help from everybody. There should not be any difference between ethnic groups or religions. We came back to our country in July 2001, and my wife has been very active ever since. She is a major coordinator for humanitarian assistance. She conducts monthly meetings with the government and all NGOs to try to coordinate the help that comes to the country. The country is in a desperate situation. Healthcare is suffering dramatically with great shortages. We have talented professors, skilled nurses, the doctors are very good, but we are lacking the resources. She is devoting her time along with many others in bringing medicines and medical equipment. I also tried to establish certain areas of expertise to examine health problems. I hope that as we move ahead the donors commit themselves more and more and the money flow will enable us to be independent of the humanitarian sector. Particularly we hope to cooperate with NGOs, charities, but also global organizations, because they have been here now for over 11 years and it has been particularly hard. But they're still here and we're grateful for that.

In one of your recent press releases you said that the communities of Serbia and Montenegro should be preserved in a united Republic. What are you doing in order to promote the unity of the country?

I have always been a person who has always respected all entities. I had the privilege of meeting all personalities involved. We endured great tragedy of several bloody divorces, as one might say, since 1990. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the Berlin wall gave the signal to the leaders of former Yugoslavia to go on their own, and that ended up in the tragedy of a generation. It was very painful for everybody. To that extent I think that the way forward in the case of Montenegro and Serbia is to find a compromise situation respecting each entity, including the people first of all. When my wife and I travel in the country, we frequently hear people saying: "We had enough of this. We would like to have a peaceful future." After all, we have been through together, we can work together, and we can respect each other. I think that this situation will be solved peacefully. I am not a politician; neither I am a member of any political party. I tried to convince many politicians during our conversations, that the only way forward is to negotiate and not for self-gain, but for the gain of all citizens. If we have another break up, I think it could only bee more painful for everyone. We recently had the visit of President Chirac in Yugoslavia, and he very correctly pointed out the view of the European Union and the one of France in particular, that it is not of their interest to have another divorce. Naturally, one must take into account people's wishes; those who are looking for power for their own interest should not influence destinies of the people. I would say: let us be patient; chances are that we will see a solution emerging within the next five months or so.

One of your aims is to bring investments into Serbia and to create jobs. What are you doing to achieve these goals, and how do you foresee your contribution in rebuilding the country?

It is very important for us to be attractive in terms of investment opportunity; investors coming hereshould feel at home, in the sense that their investments would be protected to the full extent of the law. We are still somewhat in the infancy in our reforms, but we are confident, dynamic, and we know we are going to get there. In some respects, we are still ahead of some former socialist countries. We, for instance, have a greater amount of talent that has joined the federal and republic governments. Those are people, who are part of institutions like McKenzie, and some other world known entities in the West. I think one of the impediments that we still have lies in the structure of our government in the sense that we have a broad coalition government, and a coalition of such size is always very difficult to operate. However, we are a full-fleshed democracy and we should not be expecting too much in a short time. People are ready for investments, and of course they want to see the fruit of it taking place as soon as possible. We do have a privatization ministry that has done a remarkable work. The legislative basis is being created very fast. We maybe need to improve our sales technique, which is vital to indicate to the USA, to the European Union, Australia, Japan, Canada and so on, that we are a definite positive place to invest. We will have some very interesting taxation laws, for instance. In the cases of "Zastava" (or "Yugo", as it is called in the US) and some others, from where we're hoping to attract major investors, zero taxation has been granted for ten years; we are also looking for partnerships from France and Japan, and granting them special arrangements in terms of taxation also.
We also need to market ourselves in a more positive way; to be shown in newspapers and business magazines such as "Forbes", and others; we need to emphasize on the fact that we are a very serious location, at the crossroads of Europe, and we definitely have to enter into other parts of Eastern Europe, such as Russia and beyond. We've had some limited success in doing that so far, but again I would like to excuse ourselves, because it has only been a year since we have been back into the international scene. We had a chain of tragedies: wars, sanctions, bombings and only now we've started to recover. Our inflation rate is under control now. We are waiting anxiously to see what happens in Europe with the Euro. It will be a very positive element for us, too. We are already using the DEM in a big way, but the Euro is certainly much more interesting, because it goes beyond.

Do you feel that there is a change in the attitude of the West towards Yugoslavia?

Very much so. This is indicated, of course, in the last few days by the visit of President Chirac; he is the first head of state to visit Yugoslavia since the changes. I can also see a different attitude towards us from the USA and the European Union; they perceive us as a country in a transitional period. We are indicating to the rest of the world that we want our economy to be on a denationalized, privatized and deregulated basis. We are carrying a bit of a baggage from the past, and we're having difficulties in dropping this baggage. However, I think that we are gradually letting the baggage go.

The communication sector is the one that we would definitely like to solve, but I think we're on the route now towards that. The image is better, but as I said before, we would like to improve it even more. I've already hosted the British CBI, and there's been other business entities also I would surely like to host even more of them. As a meeting point, I would offer the use the Royal Palace facilities. Certainly, in my trips abroad I have been to many countries and pointed out our readiness for changes and introduced many people to the appropriate ministers.

What legacy would you like to leave to your successor to the throne?

I don't think that we've reached the dizzy heights of Thrones. What we are trying to do is crown jobs. I think that the best legacy I would like to leave is jobs for the people, proper health care, which is lacking very much at the moment, good social services, and freedom of movement for all our citizens. These are legacies, which we all want to be very proud of. The Monarchy is doing well in the sense that we travel a lot; there is a tremendous love towards us. I'm not here to rock anybody's boat. I'm here to encourage everybody to get on, not to take sides or revenge. I get along with everyone. This is why I believe that this type of institution is a very positive element. It is certainly not a political element. The politicians have a tough and sometimes inevitable job to do, and they are the ones who have the power and they would like to engage the people in free and fair elections. We reached that state already and I hope that our next elections will prove that and we will fully establish democracy.

Since you mentioned politics, I can not help but ask would you be ready to play an active political role inside the country or in international relations?

Absolutely not. I think my role is to bring people together, to encourage them to come to the country,to be the meeting point. As we demonstrated within the last month and a half, we've had almost 6,000 people come through this palace in various receptions and dinners starting with President Kostunica, Prime Minister Djindjic, the federal government, the republic government… We have also had Montenegrin politicians here. We have also had delegations of doctors, or the media, and many others here. We have had everyone, and we have been welcoming them. As you can see I am not taking sides. You could not mix Monarchy and politics. They don't mix. Being a politician is brave enough. You're either in or out.

And how about the idea of a constitutional Monarchy?

I think it is very positive. Our country has always been a Monarchy through bad and good periods. The name of the House of Karadjordjevic is an institutional name of the country. It embedded the history. This name, this legacy must be used for the good of all people, regardless of ethnic origin or religion or political belief. My view is to defend everyone, including our past.

As you put it in one of your statements, the media is the ears and eyes of the country. What would you like Europe to hear and see from Serbia in the near future?

As you put it, I have always been a great defender of the media when we went through difficult times. We have the media, which are going through an uneasy situation, trying to improve the quality of their service. We can demonstrate that we have a fully pledged, independent media, which does not take an ideological side any more. We certainly have also the media, which are gossiping, and others, but we do have free media. We are very proud of that. If you go to a kiosk downtown in Belgrade, you will have a lot of choice. I think the West would appreciate the fact that we are a country which is capable of self appreciation through free media. All this was very difficult prior to the revolution of October 5th 2000. I do understand that the people had to have jobs then, and I do sympathize with those who worked in such media and who had to support their families, but we should not forget that even than we had the independent media as well, who fought and went into troubles for telling the truth. Now we have media that fight for sales and use all sorts of techniques, glossy and non glossy. It's exciting. It's really exciting.

What would be your final message Your Royal Highness to our readers?

I would like to address my message to everyone, not only in the USA, people would be very surprised when visiting our country to find that we are not what the western media portrayed us to be. We are very warm hearted, emotional people and also a clever and skilled people. Many foreigners who have come here and visited us expressed their positive surprise on how we are, and that we are not the way some of the media considered us, the demons. One or two leaders certainly were a sort of demons holding on to power illegally. We do not have that any more. We now have a democratically elected government, and everybody is free to say what they wish and the people that have visited us find that fascinating how warmly they are received. We just need to move on with our organization, and maybe to speed up our reforms a little bit more. But I can assure you that everyone is very warmly welcomed here.

Note: WINNE cannot be held responsible for the content of unedited transcriptions.