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Monarchism in Serbia details the history of monarchist government in the country and its predecessors, and encompasses modern advocacy of restoring Serbia's form of government to a constitutional monarchy. Monarchy in Serbia was abolished after World War II with the deposition of Peter II of Yugoslavia by the new communist government of Josip Broz Tito. [1]
Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, head of the Karađorđević dynasty, the most recent former royal house of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and Kingdom of Serbia, is a proponent of re-creating a constitutional monarchy in Serbia and sees himself as the rightful king. [2] He believes that the monarchy could give Serbia "stability, continuity and unity". [3] [2]
Serbia as an independent territory was ruled under a monarchy from its obtaining autonomy and subsequently independence from the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century until the installation of the provisional government of the Partisans-led Democratic Federal Yugoslavia in the mid-1940s, first as Revolutionary Serbia, then as the Principality of Serbia, Kingdom of Serbia, and finally a part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. After being forced to flee and form a government-in-exile following the Axis invasion of the country in 1941, the monarchy was officially abolished following the end of World War II, giving rise to the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The Centre for Research of Orthodox Monarchism is a Serbian monarchist association from Belgrade, founded in 2001 and registered with the Ministry of Justice of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in May 2002.
Following Montenegro's successful independence referendum on 21 May 2006, the re-creation of the Serbian monarchy found its way into daily political debate. A monarchist proposal for the new Serbian constitution has been published alongside other proposals. The document approved in October 2006 is a republican one. The Serbian people have not had a chance to vote on the system of government.
The Crown Prince raised the issue of a royal restoration in the immediate aftermath of the vote. In a press release issued on 24 May 2006 he stated: [4]
It has been officially confirmed that the people of Montenegro voted for independence. I am sad, but I wish our Montenegrin brothers peace, democracy and happiness. The people of Montenegro are our brothers and sisters no matter what if we live in one or in two countries, that is how it was and that is how it will be forever.
I strongly believe in a Constitutional Parliamentary Kingdom of Serbia. Again, we need to be proud, a strong Serbia that is at peace with itself and with its neighbors. We were a proud, respected and happy country in the days of my great grandfather King Peter I. So, we can do it! Only if we have a form of governance close to the Serbian soul: the Kingdom of Serbia.
Simply, the King is above daily politics, he is the guardian of national unity, political stability and continuity of the state. In Constitutional Parliamentary Monarchies the King is the protector of public interest: there is no personal or party interest. What is most important is the interest of Serbia.
I am ready to meet all our politicians; we have to work together for the common good of Serbia, and to be friends in the name of the future of our country. I appeal for the end of the continuous political wrangling, division and arguments. I appeal for mature democratic debate in the interest of Serbia. Serbia must have clear and realistic objectives.
A number of political parties and organizations support a constitutional parliamentary monarchy in Serbia. The Serbian Orthodox Church has openly supported the restoration of the monarchy. [5] [6]
In 2017 an NGO, the Kingdom of Serbia Association announced that in 2016 they had collected over 123,000 signatures of support for a referendum on restoring the monarchy, short of the 150,000 needed to force a constitutional amendment. [7]
In 2011 an online open access poll by Serbian middle-market tabloid newspaper Blic showed that 64% of Serbians support restoring the monarchy. [8]
Another poll in May 2013 had 39% of Serbians supporting the monarchy, with 32% against it. The public also had reservations with Alexander's apparent lack of knowledge of the Serbian language. [9]
On 27 July 2015, newspaper Blic published a poll "Should Serbia be a monarchy?", 49.8% respondents expressed support in a reconstitution of monarchy, 44.6% were opposed and 5.5% were indifferent. [10]
In 2017 the Serbian monarchist group the Order of the Dragon published a picture of its members on a hilltop in Kosovo wearing tactical vests, and military fatigues while flying drones. [11] The Balkan Investigative Reporting Network investigated the group and uncovered a "constellation" of loosely linked groups attempting to equip and prepare Kosovo Serbs with Russian military equipment claiming that a Kosovar attempt to cleanse the Serb minority is "looming", although no evidence exists that any such operation is planned. [11] The Belgrade based Order of the Dragon was also revealed to be financed by British far-right activist Jim Dowson and have been in contact with Russian far-right political theorist Alexander Dugin. [11]
Bratislav Živković led a Chetnik military unit as volunteers on the side of Russia during their invasion of Ukraine. [12] Before this he had been arrested in 2018 in Serbia for being part of the Russian forces that took control of Crimea when Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine's peninsula in 2014. [13] His activities were in open violation of international laws and sought to spread Serbian influence and he built a reputation as one of the most prominent extremists in the Balkans. [12] Zivkovic would be killed in action on January 3, 2025 during the Kursk offensive. [12]
Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 to 1992. It came into existence following World War I, under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes from the merger of the Kingdom of Serbia with the provisional State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs, and constituted the first union of South Slavic peoples as a sovereign state, following centuries of foreign rule over the region under the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy. Peter I of Serbia was its first sovereign. The kingdom gained international recognition on 13 July 1922 at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris. The official name of the state was changed to the Kingdom of Yugoslavia on 3 October 1929.
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch. Most often, the term royalist is applied to a supporter of a current regime or one that has been recently overthrown to form a republic.
The early written records of the history of Montenegro begin with Illyria and its various kingdoms until the Roman Republic incorporated the region into the province of Illyricum after the Illyro-Roman Wars.
The history of Serbia covers the historical development of Serbia and of its predecessor states, from the Early Stone Age to the present state, as well as that of the Serbian people and of the areas they ruled historically. Serbian habitation and rule has varied much through the ages, and as a result the history of Serbia is similarly elastic in what it includes.
The abolition of monarchy is a legislative or revolutionary movement to abolish monarchical elements in government, usually hereditary. The abolition of an absolute monarchy in favour of limited government under a constitutional monarchy is a less radical form of anti-monarchism that has succeeded in some nations that still retain monarchs, such as Sweden, Spain, and Thailand.
The Kingdom of Yugoslavia was a country in Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 until 1941. From 1918 to 1929, it was officially called the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, but the term "Yugoslavia" has been its colloquial name as early as 1922 due to its origins. The official name of the state was changed to "Kingdom of Yugoslavia" by King Alexander I on 3 October 1929.
Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia, is the head of the House of Karađorđević, the former royal house of the defunct Kingdom of Yugoslavia and its predecessor the Kingdom of Serbia. Alexander is the only child of King Peter II and his wife, Princess Alexandra of Greece and Denmark. He held the position of crown prince in the Democratic Federal Yugoslavia for the first four-and-a-half months of his life, until the declaration of the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia later in November 1945, when the monarchy was abolished. In public he claims the crowned royal title of "Alexander II Karadjordjevic" as a pretender to the throne.
The Kingdom of Montenegro was a monarchy in southeastern Europe, present-day Montenegro, during the tumultuous period of time on the Balkan Peninsula leading up to and during World War I. Officially it was a constitutional monarchy, but absolutist in practice. On 28 November 1918, following the end of World War I, with the Montenegrin government still in exile, the Podgorica Assembly proclaimed unification with the Kingdom of Serbia, which itself was merged into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes three days later, on 1 December 1918. This unification with Serbia lasted, through various successor states, for almost 88 years, ending in 2006.
Canadian monarchism is a movement for raising awareness of Canada's constitutional monarchy among the Canadian public, and advocating for its retention, countering republican and anti-monarchical reform as being generally revisionist, idealistic, and ultimately impracticable. Generally, Canadian monarchism runs counter to anti-monarchist republicanism, but not necessarily to the classical form of republicanism itself, as most monarchists in Canada support the constitutional variety of monarchy, sometimes referred to as a crowned republic. These beliefs can be expressed either individually—generally in academic circles—or through what are known as loyal societies, which include the Monarchist League of Canada, legions, historical groups, ethnic organizations, and sometimes police and scout bodies. Though there may be overlap, this concept should not be confused with royalism, the support of a particular monarch or dynasty; Canadian monarchists may appreciate the monarchy without thinking highly of the monarch. There have also been, from time to time, suggestions in favour of a uniquely Canadian monarch, either one headed by a descendant of the present monarch and resident in Canada or one based on a First Nations royal house.
In the European history, monarchy was the prevalent form of government throughout the Middle Ages, only occasionally competing with communalism, notably in the case of the maritime republics and the Swiss Confederacy.
The Party of Democratic Action of Sandžak is a political party in Serbia, representing the Bosniak ethnic minority concentrated in Sandžak region.
Serbian nationalism asserts that Serbs are a nation and promotes the cultural and political unity of Serbs. It is an ethnic nationalism, originally arising in the context of the general rise of nationalism in the Balkans under Ottoman rule, under the influence of Serbian linguist Vuk Stefanović Karadžić and Serbian statesman Ilija Garašanin. Serbian nationalism was an important factor during the Balkan Wars which contributed to the decline of the Ottoman Empire, during and after World War I when it contributed to the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and again during the breakup of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s.
Serbian–Montenegrin unionism is a socio-political movement which arose in the Balkans after the breakup of former Yugoslavia. It advocates Montenegro being in a political union with Serbia. The relationship between Serbs and ethnic Montenegrins is generally identified as being the most amicable of all the peoples of the former Yugoslavia. According to a 2023 national census, 205,370 Montenegrin citizens ethnically identify as "Serb", with 2,969 identifying as "Serbian-Montenegrin" or "Montenegrin-Serbian".
Montenegrin–Serbian relations are foreign relations between Montenegro and Serbia. From 1918 until 2006, the two states were united under the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and Serbia and Montenegro. Since 2006, there have been sporadic instances of debate on Montenegro's legitimacy as a separate state as well as much more prominent controversial debate on the Montenegrin ethnic identity. Despite this, the two countries have maintained mostly friendly geopolitical and economic relations.
History of modern Serbia or modern history of Serbia covers the history of Serbia since national awakening in the early 19th century from the Ottoman Empire, then Yugoslavia, to the present day Republic of Serbia. The era follows the early modern history of Serbia.
Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. Conversely, the opposition to monarchical rule is referred to as republicanism.
Serbs of Montenegro or Montenegrin Serbs, compose native and the second largest ethnic group in Montenegro, after the ethnic Montenegrins. Additional 0.47% of the population is made up of Serbs-Montenegrins and Montenegrins-Serbs.
Bratislav Živković was a Serbian Chetnik mercenary who was employed as a "volunteer" in the Russian Army leading a contingent of fellow Serbs against Ukraine, until his death on 3 January 2025.