Liechtenstein’s Prince Hans Adam II Hands Over Power To First Son

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

20 August 2004

Liechtenstein’s head of state, Prince Hans-Adam II, has formally transferred the day-to-day running of the principality to his eldest son, Prince Alois.

"A large responsibility has come to me today," Crown Prince Alois, 36, told reporters after the handover. "But I have the luxury that my father has included me in many important decisions and so I am well prepared."

Prince Hans-Adam II, who has been head of the royal family since the death of his father Franz Josef II in 1989, has no intention of fading into the background however, and said he has no plans to abdicate for at least another 20 years. He described the handover, celebrated at a garden party attended by all 33,000 Liechtenstein residents, as a “transition to a new generation.”

Under the principality’s constitution, approved in a referendum last year, the monarchy was given sweeping powers, including the right to veto parliamentary bills, sack the entire government and introduce emergency powers.

The move was criticised by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe which described the move as a "serious step backwards” that could "isolate" Liechtenstein internationally.

Nevertheless, Prince Alois’s first speech acknowledged the need for the principality to fall in to line with tough new rules governing the global financial industry.

"The crisis in the financial centre as well as the crisis in many European states show us how dangerous it can be if necessary, but perhaps unpleasant, reforms are not tackled promptly," the AP news agency quoted him as saying.

Prince Alois spent his early schooling within the principality before entering Britain’s Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, after which he served for six months in the Coldstream Guards in Hong Kong and London. In 1988, he enrolled as a student of jurisprudence at the Salzburg University.

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