Alexander first came to Yugoslavia in 1991. He actively worked with the opposition to
Slobodan Milošević and moved to Yugoslavia after Milošević had been
deposed in 2000. On 27 February 2001, the parliament of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) passed legislation conferring citizenship on members of the Karađorđević family. The legislation may also have effectively annulled a decree stripping the family of its citizenship of the
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) in 1947. The annulment was the topic of some debate. Notably, the FRY was not the successor of the SFRY; rather the FRY was a new state (and was admitted to the United Nations as a new state on that basis). Therefore, the jurisdiction of a new state to annul an action of a different former state was questioned. In effect, the Karađorđević family had FRY citizenship conferred upon them, not "restored" as such. The FRY legislation also addresses restoration of property to the Karađorđević family. In March 2001, the property seized from his family, including royal palaces, was returned for residential purposes with property ownership to be decided by parliament at some later date. He has lived since 17 July 2001 in the
Royal Palace (
Kraljevski Dvor) in
Dedinje, an exclusive area of Belgrade. The Palace, which was completed in 1929, is one of two royal residences in the
Royal Compound; the other is the
White Palace, which was completed in 1936.
Belief in constitutional monarchy Alexander is a proponent of re-creating a
constitutional monarchy in Serbia and sees himself as the rightful king. He believes that monarchy could give Serbia "stability, continuity and unity". 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. The assassinated former Serbian Prime Minister
Zoran Đinđić was often seen in the company of the prince and his family, supporting their campaigns and projects, although his Democratic Party never publicly embraced monarchism. Crown Prince Alexander has vowed to stay out of politics. He and Princess Katherine spend considerable time engaging in humanitarian work. The Crown Prince has, however, increasingly participated in public functions alongside the leaders of Serbia, the former Yugoslav republics and members of the
diplomatic corps. On 11 May 2006, he hosted a reception at the Royal Palace for delegates attending a summit on Serbia and Montenegro. The reception was attended by the Governor of the National Bank of Serbia, as well as ambassadors and diplomats from
Slovenia,
Poland,
Brazil,
Japan, the
United States, and
Austria. He later delivered a keynote speech in front of prime ministers
Vojislav Koštunica and
Milo Đukanović. In the speech he spoke of prospective Serbian membership of the
European Union. He told delegates: 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 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, he stated: In 2011, an online
open access poll by Serbian
middle-market tabloid newspaper
Blic 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 Blic 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. 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 Alexander being named king, short of the 150,000 needed to force a constitutional amendment. ==Honours==