Home / Europe / In Liechtenstein, 38,378 of the world’s wealthiest people go to the polls
In Liechtenstein, 38,378 of the world’s wealthiest people go to the pollsEurope 2021-02-08, by Editor Comments Off 4
Europe’s most powerful monarch still lives in a towering hilltop castle and has the power to dissolve parliament and veto legislation. He is referred to as His Serene Highness.
Decades, or indeed centuries, after Europe’s kings and queens were forced to relinquish their political power to national parliaments, Liechtenstein’s Prince Hans-Adam II and his son, Crown Prince Alois have only seen their grip on the tiny Alpine nation tighten.
According to Keystone-ATS, coming in behind the two majority parties, the Free List centre-left environmentalists obtained 12.9% of the votes, the Democrats for Liechtenstein 11.1%, and right-wing populists, the Independents (DU), got 4.2% of the votes, which was not enough to enter Parliament.
While the DU had increased their vote share in 2013 and 2017, the country’s election on Monday was seen - as it has always been - as a two-horse race, with only marginal differences, policy-wise, between the horses.
Liechtenstein, a constitutional monarchy, is a small, prosperous state with rock-bottom corporate tax rates.
It is closely linked to Switzerland and shares a customs union and the same currency (the Swiss franc), with the country.
Europe’s most powerful monarch still lives in a towering hilltop castle and has the power to dissolve parliament and veto legislation. He is referred to as His Serene Highness.
Decades, or indeed centuries, after Europe’s kings and queens were forced to relinquish their political power to national parliaments, Liechtenstein’s Prince Hans-Adam II and his son, Crown Prince Alois have only seen their grip on the tiny Alpine nation tighten.
And the people of Liechtenstein, for the most part at least, seem to love them for it.
In 2003, after a series of disputes between Prince Hans-Adam II and Liechtenstein’s parliament, a referendum was held - not on whether to reduce his power over parliamentary politics, but to increase it. Liechtenstein’s 40,000 people voted overwhelmingly in favour.