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SOCIETY-BALKANS: New Democracy Brings Royalty Back
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE, Aug 19 (IPS) - ”Once upon a time there was a prince...” there were quite a few in fact, in the Balkans before communist rule. Now they are returning. The fairy tale is coming true, at least a little.
The royalty of former Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria is returning to their homelands after decades spent in exile after the end of World War II.
The homecoming is not always a return to a palace. Careful not to wake up ghosts of the distant past, they are trying to return as a part of societies they know so little about.
Only one, Simeon II of Bulgaria, has access to power. But in a way different from his ruling predecessors. He has a party, a political one. ”Simeon II” as it is called, won the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria in 2001. The heir to the throne is now the Bulgarian Prime Minister.
”It's hard to say if the Balkans are seeing the return of monarchies in the traditional sense,” says Serb historian Vasilije Krestic. ”It's more like they are trying to find a new place in new societies.”
Countries in the Balkans now (Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, Albania, Romania and Bulgaria) were run by communists since the end of World War II. Those regimes crashed at the end of the 1980s and in the 1990s. That opened the doors for a royal return.
Many of the returning royalty were born in exile. They were all banned from returning to their homelands. None of them has citizenship of the country of origin, and none speaks the ancestral language.
Heir to the throne of former Yugoslavia, Prince Aleksandar II Karadjordjevic, returned to his country only after Slobodan Milosevic fell from power in 2000. His niece, Princess Jelisaveta also returned after Milosevic left. The new government let the Prince move into the court built by his grandfather Aleksandar I.
The Prince, the niece and other Karadjordjevics are now waiting to see the old laws on royalty changed. They want the property the communists took away after 1945.
The Kradjordjevics are busy meanwhile doing good deeds while carefully avoiding any political engagement. They have set up foundations for humanitarian aid and to support talented students. They have brought in millions of dollars worth of equipment for hospitals, and sent dozens of young Serbs abroad for further education. The students are required to return after graduation.
”This country should first dedicate itself to democracy,” says His Royal Highness, as Aleksandar II likes to be called. ”Later on, when democracy is established, people can decide whether they want the restoration of monarchy or not,” he said in a recent interview.
Aleksandar, his wife Katarina and his niece Jelisaveta seem to be enjoying their return to Serbia. They are invited to premieres, receptions and elite events attended by local politicians and important personalities.
Unlike others in the Balkans, the London-born Aleksandar II would have only a part of his former country to rule if he ever returns to the throne.
His family fled the kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1941 after the German invasion. The end of the war brought the communists, and it then fell apart in 1991. Earlier this year, what was left of it under the name of the ”Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” ceased to exist. It was turned into the new state, Serbia and Montenegro.
In neighbouring Albania, the government has rewarded the patience of the heir to the throne, Leka Zogu. He has been back since last year, and last week the Albanian government decided to return all confiscated estate to the Zogus.
Leka (64) fled Albania after it was invaded by Italy in 1939. He lived in Spain and South Africa. After the fall of communism in the early 1990s, a referendum was held whether the country should become a monarchy again. Two-thirds of Albanians opposed it. Local media reports that the heir to the throne has no further political ambitions, he just wants his villas and farmland back.
In Romania, Mihai (78) did rule his country once, though as a youngster. He was king from 1940 to 1947, when communists forced him to leave. Mihai went to live in Switzerland and spent his life as a test pilot.
He said in many interviews he had no idea whether he would ever see his homeland again. But he did, immediately after the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu fell from power in 1989.
Special laws granted Mihai the title ”Former Head of State” after the fall of communism. He has a state pension and can live on the premises that had been taken away from his family.
”Monarchies were taboo in former communist countries,” says analyst Filip Radojicic. ”For decades, communists led smear campaigns against them. Only the future will tell whether people in the Balkans really want monarchies.” (END)
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