This is the Crown Prince of Serbia. And
here is the Crown Princess. And this is
their royal palace. Sort of. 
During World War II,
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 royal palace in
Belgrade, basically acting as monarchs
that they're not.
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 Karadjordjevic 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. At the age of 2,
I was declared an enemy of the state,
ordered by Tito, the dictator. The king's
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 version
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 said,
"Goodbye." I asked my husband, "What are we
doing here?" It was really quite a shock.
It was an extremely emotional event, coming
back to one's roots. This is my
great-grandfather King Peter I,
my grandfather King Alexander, my
grandmother Queen Maria, my father King Peter II of Yugoslavia, my mother
Queen Alexandra. 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 royals 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
to Mar-a-Lago? We knew them before they
got married and then we saw them now
again. Melania'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 Crown Prince
Alexander. And so we've come to Parliament 
to meet its leader.
 
 
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
democracy's in decline because of
corruption, and voting irregularities, and
the new president's consolidation of
power. In the face of this, monarchists
are drawn to Alexander, an outsider who
says he represents the people, that he
puts Serbia first.
 
 
So this is, kind of, "make Serbia great again." 
Yes.
Twenty-two percent 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.
The reactions are pretty good. So they're all
young people who are the face of the
party today in Belgrade. God is in heaven
and king is on earth. Because of
that. Simple.
Without king and church, you're nothing.
You think the monarchy will bring back
Serbia's historic greatness? Definitely.
At the time of Kingdom of Serbia we were
one of the leading countries, you know, in
the world. Our scientists, 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: as silly,
ridiculous grown-ups playing dress-up in
an old palace. Political scientists and
historians sometimes referred to you as
a pretend monarch. What do you think of
that title? 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
overthrow the government. You can reach
me @katieengelhart or @NBCLeftField,
and, as always, follow and subscribe.
