Majority and opposition, or collaboration?

During the National Council's first public session of 2010, everything started as normal, with the unsurprising re-election of Jean-François Robillon as President. However it soon became clear that the defection of the Marquet brothers in recent weeks has created an imbalance in parliament and upset the usual calm distribution of commission posts.

Moving on to the election of Vice President, normally reserved for a member of the UNAM party, Christophe Spilotis-Saquet, ex-UP, and now independent, put himself forward. He suggested that in the current times of economic, social and indeed parliamentary crisis, the National Council should use its powers to appoint the right person to the right position. Clearly there has been a ground shift in parliament since the departure of Stephane Valeri. This was confirmed by Michele Dittlot who spoke on behalf of the 4 remaining elected members of UNAM. For 7 years UNAM's voices and proposals were listened to by the UP, but now it was no longer the case. Dittlot suggested that the majority of UP elected members consider themselves to be the only real representatives of the people, and she refused to serve as a decoy for false pluralism. In the end, it was UP's Fabrice Notari who was elected to the Vice Presidency.

During the debate, Government ministers sat in silence, but afterwards Michel Roger seemed to re-establish harmony with his first speech to the National Council. The new Minister of State recalled that Monaco's constitution does not call for a system whereby some hold power and others are in opposition. On the contrary, the constitution implies harmonious collaboration between all interested parties.

National Council : UPM no longer has the majority

National Council : UPM majority dissolves

National Council : results of musical chairs