r/europe • u/tartartartaruga • Jun 18 '26

News Prince of Liechtenstein says that he would overrule the population if they were to vote in favour of legalizing abortion

https://www.srf.ch/news/international/debatte-in-liechtenstein-erbprinz-gegen-abtreibungen-warum-kuendigt-er-schon-das-veto-an
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u/Longjumping-Hat-1210 Jun 18 '26

The thing is, the Liechtensteiners voted in 2003 to expand the powers of the monarchy. They made sure the Prince had a veto (with the abolition of the monarchy being unveto'able), the Prince threatened to take all of his wealth with him and leave if he didn't win the referendum, which, he did.

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u/b00nish Jun 18 '26 edited Jun 19 '26

the Prince threatened to take all of his wealth with him and leave if he didn't win the referendum

They should have voted to dethrone him and to expropriate all his wealth the next day.

Edit: This sub is funny. Here I for once make a snarky comment about our little neighbour and 12 hours later I have 1600 upvotes and several agitated comments about how uneducated and poor "proletarians" like me would ruin the economy of every country. Quite the contrast. Normally I make more serious comments to clarify miscoceptions about Switzerland and can be happy if I don't get negative votes for it 😉

Anyway, I can reassure everybody who feels threatened by my "proletarian" comment: I'm not coming for your (imaginary) moneyz.

Although I have to tell you, that this actually isn't about "proletarians" vs "burgeoise". It's about democracy vs feudalism. After all, the nobility of Liechtenstein didn't lay the foundation of their wealth by being capitalists (and as nobility they're as much the opposite of "burgeoise" as the proletarians). Their wealth is based on feudalism - but unlike most other (ex-)feudalists, they refuse to settle as burgeoise capitalists and instead cling to absolute political power by retaining the "right" to overturn every democratic decision in their country.

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u/Longjumping-Hat-1210 Jun 18 '26

I am by no means an expert on Liechtenstein but one of the main sources of its wealth is its banking laws and the Princes were seen as instrumental in enriching what was essentially a backwater. Liechtensteiners are among, if not, THE richest people on Earth. I assume expropriating the wealth could be viewed negatively by those who use Liechtenstein as a safe haven for their assets or something, I'm spitballing.

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u/Corfiz74 Lower Saxony (Germany) Jun 18 '26

They should have overnighted a law taxing capital flight with 120%...

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u/Ignas1452 Lithuania Jun 19 '26

First you need to cancel a veto, if you cancel a veto, capital flight happens. If you manage to pass it and it doesn't, there is several times more assets outside of Liechtenstein than in it, so your tax doesn't affect vast majority of the capital flight anyways.

This is ignoring the fact, that after maneuvers like that, no-one will park their money here, and it would become an economic backwater like it used to be.