Restoration of monarchy in Serbia (2)

Dragomir Acović, member of the Privy Council

If the citizens of Serbia were asked about it, I believe the majority would support the coronation of the king. Regrettably, it depends on those who consider themselves to be the political elite of Serbia. Year after year our initiative to proclaim the Crown Prince a king has been clashing with stupid platitudes purporting how that would not be in accordance with the laws of democracy. These efforts fail not because they lack initiative or practicality, but because they are faced with the captive minds.

Listening to the rhetoric of our most vociferous champions of republicanism one can only conclude that monarchy is by definition backward and anachronic compared to republic, thus the supporters of „this“ and opponents of „that“ cannot accept the possibility of „this“ taking as a model something from „that“. There is still a terrible ideological charge in our society, and, to make it worse, a good proportion of the population is totally unaware of it. Those attitudes have become axiomatic and as such are never questioned, nor given a second thought.

One of the key differences between monarchy and republic is that, unlike a president who is often chairman of a political party and who is temporarily promoted to the post by a portion of the electorate, because it is larger or for any other reason, against the will of another portion of the electorate, and thus accordingly must have certain preferences towards his party and those who elected him, a monarch simply excludes such possibility, or there is no monarchy. Otherwise he is a lifelong president, or, in an extreme situation such as in Haiti or North Korea, a lifelong hereditary president of republic. That is the last thing on Earth that would come to mind to the Crown Prince or to any of his advisors.

It is only natural that the expense of maintaining the Royal Compound in Dedinje is financed from the state’s budget, for whether one likes it or not, the state is its owner. The owner has always and under all regimes been responsible for covering the expenses of his property. Before the Crown Prince moved into it, all the operating expenses had been covered by the state. It had been like that when Josip Broz lived there, and in Milošević’s time, too. The expenses are almost the same regardless of whether somebody lives there or not, because the Compound has to be maintained. But if one says that something is expensive, one should first ask oneself how much what one already has cost: how much the presidential elections cost, how much the changing presidential administrations cost, how much the consequences of what one has cost, and only then should one ask for the estimate of how much the alternative to all of that would cost. Surprisingly, not one of those who now keep asking how much the monarchy would cost has raised his or her voice to ask how much the republic had cost. Who do you think had paid for the famous inventory of Mr. Broz, that was made after his death and that included 42 or 43 residencies?

Allegations that the issue of monarchy is dividing the people in Serbia are an unscrupulous hogwash. I often ask myself if those who make them are trying to say that the people are divided today because we have had monarchy since 1945? Who’s crazy here? Excuse me, but this country has experienced secession during the hardcore republican ideological and political system. It was rejected as a homeland even by the ethnic minorities that were promoted by the very republican system.