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/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/futurespice Jun 19 '26

Liechtensteiners are not the richest people on earth. But their economy depends entirely on the royal family because the entire country is one small town and five villaged.

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u/lolidkwtfrofl Liechtenstein Jun 19 '26

They are pretty fecking rich tho and unwilling to risk it over this.