this is the comprehensive serbia and
here is the crown princess and this is
their royal palace sort of during World
War two
the monarchs of Serbia were kicked out
of the country and sent into exile and
stripped of their titles but they never
gave up the claim to the throne and now
today they live in this world palace in
Belgrade basically acting as monarchs
that they're not
[Music]
there's a debate going on in Serbia
about whether they are in fact monarchs
or whether they're just pretending I
think we're pretty successful pretending
and if they are pretending whether they
might become real and what that would
mean for Serbia so this is kind of make
Serbia great again yes here's where we
go back in time for almost two centuries
the karageorge of ik dynasty ruled the
kingdom of Yugoslavia which included
modern-day Serbia Belgrade was the
capital and Serbia was an important
place with influence in the world but in
1941 the Nazis invaded and King Peter
had to flee then at the end of the war a
communist regime came to power and
abolished the monarchy the age of - I
was declared an enemy of the state
bordered by Tito the dictator the king
son Alexander grew up in London he got
married he worked in finance and he
didn't set foot in Serbia until the 90s
when Yugoslavia erupted in war and then
fell apart when Alexander landed in
Belgrade he was greeted by hundreds of
thousands of supporters he is the man
who would be king heir to a vacant
throne he hopes to help end the civil
war in the country that he's really
never known I think there's a lot that
can be done but I'm on course from
abroad Alexander backed the anti regime
opposition in his version of things he
played a pretty critical role in the
fall of communism
though many Serbs would find that person
to be exaggerated what I did I helped to
bring democracy by uniting the
Democratic opposition against the regime
and in the end that was successful in
2001 Alexander moved to Belgrade into
the palace where his father used to live
they gave us the keys and they say
goodbye I asked my husband what are we
doing here it was really quite a shock
was an extremely emotional event coming
back to one's roots this is my
great-grandfather King Peter the first
my grandfather King Alexander my
grandmother Queen Maria my father can
feel the second of Yugoslavia my mother
Creon exotic technically speaking the
palace doesn't belong to Alexander he's
fighting the state to get it back but in
the meantime the government has let him
move in he will sit in a chair and he
will look at me with tears in his eyes
saying tell me do you think maybe my
father was sitting in this chair or my
grandfather the would-be royal spend
their days like you'd imagine Royals
might alexander meets with various
dignitaries catherine raises money for
charity and hands out toys at local
hospitals they go to dinner parties in
important places with important people
like Vladimir Putin Nelson Mandela
Alexander's godmother Queen Elizabeth
and you know Donald Trump you've been
tomorrow Lago we knew them before they
got married and then we saw them now
again
milania's parents were there wonderful
the powerful serbian orthodox church
backs Prince Alexander at church he and
Catherine are seated in well Thrones
still Alexander wants to make things
official you know the unusual situation
now is of course that you know you live
in this palace with your wife and you
have these titles but you're not
officially recognized as monarchs no
does that seem like a strange state of
affairs to you
it does but everybody's treating us
nicely the idea of re-establishing
monarchy in Serbia seems far-fetched but
there is this new political movement
behind it last year this party was
started with the primary objective of
reinstating conference Alexander and Zoe
from Parliament immediate leader pues
nada
nice muy muy Pelican duty motto me
Ezra be a villain I posted on 'ya ayyuha
alladhina the neither to territorial
email academia latrina the Imola Naga
sadhus Nika reported to Varna they'd be
mocked at the party only has one member
of parliament but it recently won seats
in local councils its members told us
they don't think democracy's worked out
well in Serbia according to a 2018
Freedom House ranking Serbia's
democracies in decline because of
corruption and voting irregularities and
the new presidents consolidation of
power in the face of this monarchists
are drawn to Alexander an outsider who
says he represents the people that he
put Serbia first when I Bugatti examine
aquarium Ursula demo so Simone are here
monarchic regime in a elites Aravena he
smart from the ITO strongly an approach
it's a kya nom nom system read gnostic
so this is kind of make serbia great
again yes
[Music]
22% of Serbs support the restoration of
the crown according to a poll from 2015
almost every day a group of young
monarchist takes to the streets of
Belgrade to spread the word we want to
show our people our great people that we
are the first monarchy party since 1945
is wealthy the reactions are pretty good
so there are young people who are the
face of the party today in Belgrade God
isn't heaven I'm thinking this on earth
because of that simple
without Kingdom Church you're nothing
you think the monarchy will bring back
Serbia is historic greatness definitely
at the time of kingdom of Serbia we were
one of the leading countries you know in
the world our science is our culture our
military you know but critics say
Alexander and Catherine are promoting an
embellished account of Serbian history a
glorious royal past that never was
others see them in another way a silly
ridiculous grown-ups playing dress-up in
an old palace political scientists and
historians sometimes referred to you as
a pretend one Ark what do you think of
that tale pretend a lot of people
pretend to be what they're not but we're
pretending to be here and we've done a
pretty good pretension I think we're
pretty successful at pretending if you
liked this story you might want to watch
our film about Russian influence in
Montenegro and an alleged plot to
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me at Cady Engelhardt or at NBC
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