CROWN AWAITS BETTER DAYS

PRESS daily newspaper, Belgrade, 24.08.2008

INTERVIEW: Dragomir Acović, member of the Privy Council

CROWN AWAITS BETTER DAYS

- I believe that Serbia can restore its monarchy if there is consensus in our political environment. I refer to those moderate and high end factions of all political parties that are yet to be exposed. And I leave no party out of it. If I hadn’t believed that, I would have given up long time ago – says Acović.

- Why has the interest of the Serbs for monarchy declined?

- It all depends how one names it. In the time when majority of citizens saw regime as everybody’s enemy, the Crown was a symbolic counterbalance. Today, the country is split into two groups who see each other as enemies... The people are terribly disappointed.

-In whom?

- In everybody and everything. In the government, in the military... It seems to me we have fallen into an emotional lethargy. And on the other hand, into a state of uncontrollable discontent, bitterness that simply pours out from most of the people, it bursts out in totally unexpected situations, without any direct motivation or reason.

Everybody swears by international integrations and democracy. And everybody swears by better future, but we can’t reach it as long as the other half of the people bothers us. And we shall have that future as soon as we eliminate that other half, by force if necessary. And that is the only message in our political market. In a situation like that, it is very difficult to be someone who is supposed to be a reconciler. And as a rule, the Crown has the function of a reconciler.

-You mention reconciliation, haven’t Mr. Dačić and Mr. Tadić reconciled and said...

- Do you think those are the two warring halves of the people?

-Let’s say they took on themselves the...

- You can take on yourself whatever you want. I can take on myself to speak for all the kangaroos outside Australia, but that doesn’t mean anything. Who has reconciled? The parties’ leaderships? What have they reconciled over? What was the quarrel up to now? When did it happen that what has been dividing them until now, began to unite them? But monarchy, by definition, represents the center. That is why today there is a great deficiency of what used to be in excess, and that is monarchist parties. For almost all monarchist parties used to have ideas how actually the monarch should carry their banners in the election campaign rallies. Which has nothing to do with monarchy... The last time we surveyed the public opinion, through an agency, anonymously, more than 30 per cent of the questioned were pro monarchy.

-When was the survey taken?

- A year ago. However, what was true on Monday, does not have to be true on Tuesday at all. And so we have a problem. Things can’t be put in a logical or practical manner. So now we are in a totally impossible situation. The question is what the message is and what monarchy offers. If the present situation suits you, you don’t need monarchy. But monarchy is everything what the present situation isn’t. And if you see the way out in dialog, in exchanging of arguments instead of slaps, if you realize that it doesn’t matter how brilliant and intelligent you are, that still doesn’t mean that you can be the leader of a nation.

-If Serbia is polarized, if you have the results of the polls, doesn’t the Crown see its chance? Why has it withdrawn from the public life?

- It hasn’t, the media have withdrawn from the Crown.

-Why?

- My guess is that the media are also a part of the general division. There is almost no media that can’t be recognized from a distance in terms of which half it represents and which half is the enemy. It is completely clear then why the Crown is not there, for it is a center, it is neither left nor right. The Crown can’t just show up and say: „I am the alternative“. The Crown is not an alternative to democracy, it is an essential part of it.

-What would the citizens gain in monarchy, in particular?

- The existence of a center, which doesn’t curry favors for being elected after lying how the pensions will be raised. The existence of someone whose views of the country’s future are far broader, far more direct and far more powerful than of any political party. Because a monarch has no competition. The king does not have a party machinery. The king is not above the constitution and law, but is a part of them. He can’t have and shouldn’t have the executive power, which is an important difference in relation to the present situation. Also, monarchy creates prerequisites for discussion on the country’s direction, without having the other half of the people as the enemy.

GOOD AND BAD WAY OF THINKING

-Would an average citizen live better in monarchy? Would food and gas be cheaper to him, could he buy a new car?

- I can put the question the other way round: if things stay the way the are, do you think you’ll live better, food and gas will be cheaper, you’ll be able to buy a new car? You won’t. So, what are you really asking? You’re asking to make a choice between the two things, and for one of them you know how it works. And you’re not happy with it. And there’s the other thing, for which you don’t know how it works, but you don’t even want to try it because you’re afraid it might be worse than the one you’re not happy with. I’m not quite sure it’s a good way of thinking.

Đ. Tomić

http://www.pressonline.rs/page/stories/sr.html?view=story&id=44596