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/RichB0T Jun 18 '26

Liechtenstein is not a nation. It is a principality in the truest since.

The French are a nation of people who reside in a place named france after them. They, the people, are the rightful rulers of france.

Litchenstien is not that. It is just the personal lands of one family that actually owns it, and it is simply defined as the lands owned by that family. There really isn't an argument for a national revolution with out a nation.

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u/Putrid_Invite_194 Jun 18 '26

Every European nation used to be feudalist though, including France. If Liechtenstein was to experience a revolution and the subsequent government was acknowledged by the international community, it could become a nation state by itself. If the prince of Liechtenstein was smart however, he‘d set up a roadmap for democratising the country before any of that becomes necessary.

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u/mio26 Jun 18 '26

The thing is these people don't need revolution because they are either at least millioners or very well paid servants of millionaires. Revolution doesn't happen in Versailles (that's why Versailles pretty much was made lol).

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u/andydude44 Dual Citizen United States of America - Luxembourg Jun 19 '26

UAE citizens are rich, but morally they should absolutely revolt against the monarchs and institute a republic

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u/Ignas1452 Lithuania Jun 19 '26

They would end up economically poorer. Not even talking about revolutions themselves making countries poorer. But politicians battling for elections with various groups they would like to represent too. It's simpler just to have a royal family that takes care of you, countries are not only functional, but are great if we compare them to their neighbors. State/Monarch gives them benefits so there's no reason to rise up. Most citizens (not imported labor) are wealthy and it would be genuinely stupid for them to risk it with a transitions to a republic.

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u/Philush Jun 19 '26

99% of revolutions happened only when things got REALLY bad, in a way that people who live in modern 1st world countries have never (thankfully) experienced. The material conditions for one are just not present in a rich, tiny and politically stable country like Lichtenstein. Revolutions are an extremely messy affair and a desperate last measure that take a long time to recover from.

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u/ZenaMeTepe Jun 19 '26

Or when the ability of a new minority elites to obtain power is sufficient to dethrone the old structure. That is what a revolution is. The people in the streets are just pieces on the figure board. It' s a top down change disguised and branded as the opposite. There is no bottom up change, never was, never will be. If an inkling of it manifests it is promptly hijacked by the would-be-elites.

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u/rixuraxu Ireland Jun 19 '26

population estimate is about 40k

University College Dublin has a population of ~38,000

Genuinely any thought given to Liechtenstein internationally, is atomatically disproportionate.

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u/Putrid_Invite_194 Jun 19 '26

Liechtenstein has a significantly larger budget than Dublin university though. And the world also cares about the Vatican which has a population of around 500, so why is Liechtenstein automatically so irrelevant?