Emmanuel Macron began a visit to the micro-state of Andorra on Monday evening, where he underlined the “singularity” of the Pyrenean principality, between attachment to its “traditions” and “European future”. On Tuesday, the French president must address the delicate question of abortion.

Published on: 04/27/2026 - 04:27 Modified on: 04/28/2026 - 16:18

French President Emmanuel Macron, co-prince of Andorra, praised, Monday April 27, the "singularity" of the Pyrenean principality, between attachment to its "traditions" and "European destiny", on the first day of a visit to the micro-state, where the delicate question of abortion must be addressed on Tuesday.

“It is in this permanent tension between the modernity with which we are confronted (...) and its traditions, between its anchoring, its roots and its European future that the destiny of the principality is at stake,” he said during a dinner hosted by the second co-prince, Mgr Josep-Lluis Serrano Pentinat.

Under a centuries-old system, the French head of state shares the duties of co-prince of Andorra with the Catholic bishop of the Spanish border town of Urgell.

The president also highlighted Andorra's "active neutrality internationally" and its "capacity to always know how to project itself towards a form of universality, towards principles that go beyond it and know how to embrace a Europe within which it is part".

One visit per presidential mandate

An association agreement with the European Union (EU) should allow Andorra to participate in the common market without becoming an EU member state. The text must still be submitted to a referendum in the country.

The principality, whose surface area is less than twice that of Marseille, is known for its ski slopes and its advantageous taxation. But it left the OECD list of tax havens in 2010 and has since implemented moderate taxes, well below those of the EU average.

The tradition, established by Charles de Gaulle, requires each president to go there during his mandate. Emmanuel Macron did it in 2019, during his first five-year term.

Ban on abortion

The principality is, with the Vatican, the only state in Europe to completely prohibit voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion), even in cases of rape, incest, danger to the mother or illness of the fetus. IVG is punishable by prison for women and doctors who perform it, even if there has never been a trial.

Read alsoAndorra, a European exception

The head of government of Andorra, Xavier Espot Zamora, told AFP at the end of March that he was hopeful of decriminalizing abortion within a year without legalizing it. The singular governance structure of the principality makes the issue particularly thorny, because any progress requires negotiations with the Holy See.

If abortion remains prohibited, it is "not because the government of Andorra or Andorran society are more conservative than in France or Spain", but because "one of our heads of state is a bishop", explained Xavier Espot Zamora.

With AFP

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