(...) Agefi: Which role do you wish to play in the new State?

Prince Nicolas of Montenegro : I wish before all the rehabilitation of our family which was banished of the Country and deprived of all its rights in 1918. I am insistent that this injustice should be repaired by the institutions of Montenegro and that a place be reserved to our family in the country. It’s the minimal condition so that I can plan to play a role there. This step is in process of negotiation with the Government and I hope that — now Montenegro is independent — the Montenegrin Government will be able to show, like all its neighbors, that it respects its history. I also look for this rehabilitation through Europe which, realpolitik obliges, threw in the oubliettes of history, a dynasty which however took part in its construction. I have of course the wish to be able to continue to help Montenegro, and also to carry on there my professional competences. As an architect, I am aware of all the great potentials of Montenegro resulting of its natural heritage. At the same time, I see that this heritage is each year a little more sacrificed to short-sighted interests. If I had the possibility of it, I would like much to be able to devote a part of my time to heritage protection and durable development, like Prince Albert II of Monaco or Prince Charles of England.

Agefi: Which are the Montenegrin forces and personalities favorable to a return of monarchy?

PNoM: I believe that Montenegrins are monarchists who do not know themselves. The attachment that they carry to our family is really astonishing. Portraits of my ancestors are everywhere, the dynasty is a constant reference. But after 50 years of single party and more than 15 years of conflicts, as in a lot of old Eastern European countries, people cannot imagine other solutions than the power in place. The attachment to the dynasty is more of the order of emotional feeling. It is also the object of manipulation by all the political parties and then, you know, a poor Prince does not represent a credible alternative face to a class of new rich persons who today occupy the front of the scene. It will need time to normalise this relation between Montenegrins and our family, and in order that they understand the interest for a so small country to have a historical visibility.
It is not a political question but quite a question of development of the country, of its inhabitants and of what they produce. But, you know, for our family, time does not have the same value. It is the time of History, this history that Montenegrins themselves do and undo. After me, there is my son Boris, after him his children or those of my daughter, Altinaï: as our ancestor Petar II said “Neka bude sto biti moze” (that occurs what cannot occur). But I trust in Montenegrins because, for a so long time, our destinies are dependent.

Agefi: In another interview (French magazine “Point de Vue”), you preach durable development, altermondialism and biological agriculture: do you think that these choices will be adopted with enthusiasm by Montenegrins?

PNoM: This option which still few years ago was of the field of utopia, is today a reality not only ethical but economical. Several channels, including the one of renewable energies, are promised to a fast development. Montenegrins are not yet aware of all the benefit that this idea of an ecological state could bring to them. Most of people are like Saint Thomas, they believe only what they see. This is why it is important to carry out pilot projects in this field. I suggest for example:
• An Exhibition of Environment at Cetinje in 2007;
• A High School (private if possible) in Environmental Sciences and Arts, graduating engineers, biologists, town planners, architects, landscape designers;
• The creation of a Green Police force which would recycle a part of the current plethoric police force;
• That each country which plans to establish an embassy in Montenegro, calls on one of its best architects’ service and realises a model building of ecological architecture which will be at the same time a window of its know-how and of its engagement for the protection of the planet.

Agefi: Do you see other possibilities to give the primacy to ethics in the business life of Montenegro?

PNoM: Of course, this is not the universal panacea. Nevertheless, loving his country, this is also loving its rivers, its mountains, the men and the animals which live there. Obviously such a strategy can only conceive itself in a society of right. With laws strictly respected by all, which is not the case today. This respect of law builds itself on credible and consensual values. These are the values that it is important to rebuild today and I think that the name Petrovitch Njegosh can be useful in this process.

Agefi: Do you have good relations with the other European royal families?

PNoM: Curiously whereas King Nikola was called the father-in-law of Europe, whereas crowned heads of Europe were coming to Cetinje at the beginning of the XXth century, the dynasty Petrovitch Njegosh has been completely set aside since the creation of Yugoslavia. I only met my cousins Romanov (Russia), Savoy (Italy) and Karadjordjevic (Serbia) in 1989 at the time of the Cetinje ceremony.
Since, I met several descendants of the great European families and I try to rebuild these ties. It is with the revival of the dynastic Order of Danilo Ist, only heritage which could not be confiscated to us, that I could renew some ties and affirm the existence of our family in the aristocratic circles. Concerning the reigning families, I was never in contact with them, They always seemed to me so distant and inaccessible, I always had the feeling that for them, the only legitimate dynasty in the Balkans was the Karadjordjevic dynasty. Perhaps, with the independence of Montenegro, that will be able to change.

"Le Mensuel", p. 9, September 2006 (in French)