In a rare intervention that underscores the enduring authority
of Europe’s remaining absolute monarchs, Prince Albert II of Monaco
has refused to sign a bill that would have legalised abortion in
the principality, abruptly halting a reform passed by a large
parliamentary majority.
The bill, approved in May by 19 votes to 2 in the National
Council, proposed allowing terminations up to 12 weeks of pregnancy
– or 16 weeks in cases of rape – and reducing the age of parental
consent from 18 to 15.
However, the Prince instructed his government not to implement
the measure, effectively refusing to grant what is known as ‘Royal
Assent’ in the UK.
In comments to the local
newspaper Monaco-Matin, he made clear that he regarded
the reform as incompatible with the identity of the principality.
He said: “I believe the current system expresses who we are,
considering the role of the Catholic religion in our country, while
ensuring safe and humane support.”
Monaco’s existing law, among the strictest in Europe, permits
abortion only in three circumstances: rape, serious risk to the
mother’s life, or significant foetal abnormality. Although the
procedure was decriminalised in 2019, a woman who seeks an elective
termination must travel abroad, usually to France. The Prince
argued that legislative changes introduced in 2009 and 2019 had
already established “a balanced framework – one that respects
Monaco’s constitutional principles, cultural identity and the women
affected.”
Two weeks before his public comments, Christophe Mirmand, the
Minister of State, informed Thomas Brezzo, president of the
National Council, that the government would not be taking the bill
forward. At the Prince’s request, officials formally notified the
Council that the text would not be promulgated.
The refusal amounts to a direct use of one of the most potent
powers available to the Monegasque sovereign. Under the
constitution, no bill can become law unless the Prince sanctions
and promulgates it – a requirement that gives him an unambiguous
veto over legislation. Such interventions are almost unheard of in
modern European monarchies, which have long since rendered royal
assent a formality.
There are, however, precedents elsewhere. King Baudouin of
Belgium famously declined to sign his country’s 1990 law
liberalising abortion, prompting the government to declare him
temporarily unable to reign so that ministers could enact the
legislation collectively. In Luxembourg, Grand Duke Henri’s refusal
to sign a 2008 euthanasia bill led parliament to amend the
constitution, stripping the monarch of his sanctioning authority.
Liechtenstein’s Hans-Adam II has also stated that he would block
any attempt to legalise abortion by referendum.
Monaco has taken a different path. The principality’s
constitution still defines Catholicism as the state religion and
provides no alternative route for legislation to bypass the Prince.
As a result, his decision stands as a decisive and final word on
the matter, leaving the country’s restrictive abortion regime
unchanged.
“I understand how sensitive this subject is, the emotion it can
bring up,” Prince Albert acknowledged. But with the stroke of a pen
withheld, he has demonstrated that, in Monaco at least, the
sovereign’s assent remains far more than ceremonial.
