Lluís Vicent participates on behalf of the RAED in the reception that the Andorran Government and civil society offered to the French president, Emmanuel Macron
Lluís Vicent, first rector of the Lasalle Open University of Andorra and corresponding academician of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED), participated last September 13 on behalf of the Royal Corporation in the reception that the Government of Andorra offered to the president of the French Republic and in turn coprince of Andorra, Emmanuel Macron, with whom he held a brief meeting in which he addressed various educational and academic aspects. The academician already participated in the reception that five years ago Andorra offered to the then French president and also Andorran coprince François Hollande, with whom he also had the opportunity to talk.
Andorra cultivates its unique political organization in the form of Parliamentary Coprincipate. Its Constitution defines that the Head of State is divided between the two coprinces, jointly and undividedly. And this is a first peculiarity: the Head of State is plural. The other peculiarity is the asymmetry of the two coprinces: one is the head of state of the French Republic and the other is the bishop of Urgell, who holds the title of episcopal coprince. The first is in inheritance of the count of Foix, who in 1278 signed an agreement with the bishop of Urgell where they established that they would charge taxes to the inhabitants of the valleys of Andorra annually and alternatively, and that they would impart justice jointly. This is how this unique territorial organization was born with a two-headed head of state.
As Lluís Vicent explains, surely Andorra would not have reached our day, 741 years later, as an independent state without this asymmetric coparticipation. The temptations of occupation, especially for neighboring states, would have materialized at some point in history. Also probably a symmetrical coprincipality, for example with the heads of State of France and Spain, would have jeopardized Andorran independence in some of the moments of conflict between these two countries. The majority of Andorran people see the Coprincipate shared between the State of France and the Catholic Church as the guarantee of their sovereignty, and they voted for it in the 1993 Constitution. And that is why the visit of their farthest coprince, the French, becomes a national holiday where the people show their gratitude.
