The French Elections in Andorra

Everybody’s talking about the current French elections, but as far as I can see, no one is talking about the effect these elections could have on the Andorran monarchy. The President of France, whomever it is, automatically becomes a coprince of Andorra; a landlocked microstate in the Pyrenees, situated between Spain and France. 

The coprince system dates back to 1278, when the Count of Foix and the Bishop of Urgell signed the “Act of Pareage”, these days it means that the Bishop of Urgell and President of France have side-gigs as coprinces of Andorra. This results in quite a few odd circumstances: such as the president of France sending a letter to himself when he appoints a new ambassador in Andorra, since he is both sender and one of the receivers. Other oddities include  Andorra being the only monarchy with a democratically elected monarch (the President of France), in a democratic vote in which the citizens are not allowed to participate.  And of course the fact that France’s modern identity is founded on them decapitating all the nobles, yet their president remains a ruling monarch.

I don’t know what Andorrans think of them not participating in French elections, Mélanchon’s party seems to have a branch in Andorra, but they didn’t respond when I asked why. The coprince positions are fairly powerful, involving judicial powers, and needing to consent to a fair chunk of what Andorra does (such as international treaties), but with a 10% tax rate and no inheritance taxes, it can’t be that bad.