Monarchism 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. ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian language, Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe, Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Bas ...

details the history of monarchist government in the country and its predecessors, and encompasses modern advocacy of restoring returning Serbia's form of government to a

constitutional monarchy A constitutional monarchy, parliamentary monarchy, or democratic monarchy is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in decision making. Constitutional monarchies dif ...

Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia Alexander, Crown Prince of Yugoslavia ( sr, Александар Карађорђевић, Престолонаследник Југославије; born 17 July 1945 in London), is the head of the House of Karađorđević, the former royal h ...

, head of the

Karađorđević dynasty The Karađorđević dynasty ( sr-Cyrl, Динасија Карађорђевић, Dinasija Karađorđević, Карађорђевићи / Karađorđevići, ) or House of Karađorđević ( sr-Cyrl, Кућа Карађорђевић, Kuća Karađ ...

, the most recent former royal house of the

Kingdom of Yugoslavia The Kingdom of Yugoslavia ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Kraljevina Jugoslavija, Краљевина Југославија; sl, Kraljevina Jugoslavija) was a state in Southeast Europe, Southeast and Central Europe that existed from 1918 unt ...

and

Kingdom of Serbia The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr-cyr, Краљевина Србија, Kraljevina Srbija) was a country located in the Balkans which was created when the ruler of the Principality of Serbia, Milan I, was proclaimed king in 1882. Since 1817, the Princi ...

, is a proponent of re-creating a constitutional monarchy in Serbia and sees himself as the rightful king. He believes that the monarchy could give Serbia "stability, continuity and unity".

History

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 Revolutionary Serbia ( sr, Устаничка Србија / Ustanička Srbija), or Karađorđe's Serbia ( sr, Карађорђева Србија / Karađorđeva Srbija), refers to the state established by the Serbian revolutionaries in Ottoman S ...

, then as the Principality of Serbia,

, and finally a part of the

. After being forced to flee and form a

government-in-exile A government in exile (abbreviated as GiE) is a political group that claims to be a country or semi-sovereign state's legitimate government, but is unable to exercise legal power and instead resides in a foreign country. Governments in exile u ...

following the Axis invasion of the country in 1941, the monarchy was officially abolished following the end of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, giving rise to the

Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

Movement to restore the monarchy

The Centre for Research of Orthodox Monarchism is a Serbian monarchist association from

Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...

, founded in 2001 and registered with the Ministry of Justice of

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Serbia and Montenegro ( sr, Cрбија и Црна Гора, translit=Srbija i Crna Gora) was a country in Southeast Europe located in the Balkans that existed from 1992 to 2006, following the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yu ...

in May 2002. Following

Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...

'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 A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" or ...

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 A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...

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: A number of political parties and organizations support a constitutional parliamentary monarchy in Serbia. The

Serbian Orthodox Church The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian denomination, Christian churches. The majori ...

has openly supported the restoration of the monarchy.

Polling

In 2011 an online

open access poll An open-access poll is a type of opinion poll in which a nonprobability sample of participants self-select into participation. The term includes call-in, mail-in, and some online polls. The most common examples of open-access polls ask people t ...

by Serbian middle-market

tabloid Tabloid may refer to: * Tabloid journalism, a type of journalism * Tabloid (newspaper format), a newspaper with compact page size ** Chinese tabloid * Tabloid (paper size), a North American paper size * Sopwith Tabloid, a biplane aircraft * ''Ta ...

newspaper

Blic ''Blic'' (Cyrillic: Блиц, ) is a daily middle-market tabloid newspaper in Serbia. Founded in 1996, ''Blic'' is owned by Ringier Axel Springer Media AG, a joint venture between Ringier media corporation from Switzerland and Axel Springer AG ...

showed that 64% of Serbians support restoring the monarchy. 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. On 27 July 2015, newspaper ''

'' published a poll "''Da li Srbija treba da bude monarhija?''" ("Should Serbia be a monarchy?"); 49.8% respondents expressed support in a reconstitution of monarchy, 44.6% were opposed and 5.5% were indifferent.ANKETA Da li Srbija treba da bude monarhija?
''

''. ''(in Serbian)''. July 2015.

Parties

* Serbian Renewal Movement (1990–present) * New Serbia (1998–present) *

Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia The Movement for the Restoration of the Kingdom of Serbia ( sr, link=, Покрет обнове Краљевине Србије, Pokret obnove Kraljevine Srbije; abbr. ПОКС or POKS) is a monarchist and national-conservative political party ...

(2017–present)

References

{{Europe topic, prefix=Monarchism in Monarchism in Serbia Restoration of the monarchy