On April 2, Andorra has an appointment with the polls to elect the representatives of the Parliament of what will be the ninth legislature, the same year that the thirty years of its Constitution are celebrated. An ancient country in terms of history but young in its international projection. The Co-Principality of the Pyrenees does not stop burning stages to find a place among the great states that surround it.
The general elections for the selection of the Government represent in any country an alteration of the internal agenda of the institutions, of the markets, of the day to day of the companies and also of the citizens. In a country like Andorra, where electoral door-to-door is still practiced, that is, visiting voters at home to explain the electoral program, one vote can hold the key to governance. In this particular bicameral electoral system, but with only one chamber, the 29,958 voters called to the polls have the responsibility of choosing who will be the next Gorvern cap of the principality.
The electoral campaign in which the various political forces are immersed enters its second week, and therefore in its middle, having shown the first conclusions of the real possibilities for the final scrutiny on April 2. Without excluding the possibility of an absolute majority of a single party, it seems that the future new Government will be resolved between the continuity of a coalition model of the center-right of Andorra, which has been at the forefront for the last four years, or a left-wing alternative that He aspires to reach the Government fourteen years after his brief period in 2009.
This theoretical polarization does not exclude, however, the participation and importance of other smaller formations, newly created, complex to situate in the sociological spectrum and also difficult to fit into the possible governance pacts that can be generated the day after the voting. It is difficult to visualize the role that the newly created political forces may have in the parliamentary arc of the General Council.
What is clear are the challenges that Andorra will face from April 3. Its importance invites us to think about the convenience of the Government being under governability formulas that guarantee the necessary stability to face these challenges with serenity, unity and also plurality of visions. Negotiations such as the Association Agreement with the European Union call for a robust Executive but at the same time with the broadest possible ideological spectrum, always within the same political coherence.
The formula of the current Government has marked the path of what political stability represents within a coalition government, despite the fact that not everyone gave a vote of confidence to the alliance that had been formed. The truth is that the current Government, now in office, has faced one of the most difficult periods in the country, as a result of the pandemic and its economic effects, without internal or external dissensions, and that is where part of the success of his administration resides. .
This model of political and ideological coalition is not exclusive to democrats and liberals, it can also be represented by the left-wing alternative that once again runs jointly in these elections. After separating, despite ruling the country for two years between 2009 and 2011, the left-wing alliance joins efforts again to try to reach the Government. This agreement of the Andorran socialists draws a solid block that a priori can also gather enough support to unseat the current tenants of the executive.
They are, therefore, key elections for the present because they can produce alternation, but above all for the future, since we are talking about a four-year period that is decisive for making important decisions that the Government must carry out and that will mark the future. immediate. A whole young generation of Andorran men and women may be marked by some decisions that are taken in the next legislature, which places even more responsibility on the Executive and the Parliament that will be drawn up.
As a balance of the four years of the liberal-democratic block of the current Government, the good fit produced between these two political forces of national scope is verified and that they do not stop having a similar ideological base, reformist liberalism. The approach of the respective electoral programs of the 2019 elections allowed a good and easy fusion of the proposals of both parties in the Government’s road map.
The planned country plan and objectives have been largely implemented, despite the impact of the pandemic, although some announced projects have been left pending. To fully assess the result of this alliance, a second legislature would be necessary. The truth, however, is that the liberal-democratic team has brought stability and growth to Andorra up to now.
Programmatically, the two parties once again present many similarities in these elections, a product of having governed together for four years, but it is also evident that they present the necessary and legitimate nuances that can further enrich the breadth of the base of possible government agreements. Democrates per Andorra has made a good part of the successes and the work done in the Government, but this work and results cannot be understood without the good concord and complementarity and the role that the Liberals have played in many of the important projects.
The pairing has given stability to a difficult legislature, in which the most important difficulties have been overcome thanks to the positive correlation between the two coalition parties and the good harmony of their respective political leaders. If the electoral scenario involved a reissue of the liberal-democratic formula, the Government would remain stable and effective, given the good dynamics demonstrated until the end of the current term.
As an alternative to the current government coalition, there is the possibility of a left-wing Government, a scenario that would entail a change in the country model promoted up to now. The proposals announced by the alliance between socialists diverge from the model defended by the democrats and the liberals on key issues such as the reform of the pension system, the tax model, foreign investment and economic diversification.
A political alternation that would mean a necessary pause to reconsider the new focus of the issues. This pause would also affect, and surprisingly, the Association Agreement with the European Union. In the final stretch of the current mandate, the Socialists have distanced themselves from the joint negotiation table of all the political forces arguing discrepancies regarding the adoption schedule of the possible Agreement and also lack of transparency of the Government negotiators towards the rest of the parliamentary forces . This change in the position of the leftist forces is surprising, perhaps due to an electoral tacticism.
It cannot be forgotten that the Andorran socialists have always been characterized by defending an approximation of Andorra to the EU in a clear and determined manner. Without going any further, the start of negotiations with the EU begins with the Government of the Social Democratic Party in 2010.
It is evidence that the country’s challenges are still enormous and that they will largely mark the future of Andorra in the coming years in an important way. We could make a comparison with what the adoption of the Constitution in 1993 meant, the institutional adaptation, the modernization of the structures and the opening of the country in the international arena during its thirty years of validity. The bases of this change that the country can experience, with access to the European market and its freedoms, will be established during the next four years of the legislature that is about to begin. The moment requires the maximum consensus so that the foundations of the process are as solid as possible.
Achieving and approving a good Association Agreement with the European Union is not the same if it is done from a monocolor Government than if it is achieved by a more plural Government. The same is true when it comes to tackling the pension system reforms that the Andorran welfare state needs to guarantee the viability of the benefits. Deciding on the years needed to reach retirement age is a debate that always generates tension.
Just looking at your French neighbors shows how sensitive this issue is. Neither would it be understood that the economic diversification started during this legislature, betting on the digital economy as a new field of competitiveness for the Andorran economy to generate sectors with high added value, did not have the necessary continuity to consolidate a model that can bear fruit. And it is that the country has recovered very well from the impact caused by the covid, despite coming from an internal crisis linked to the financial system created in 2015.
It seems, a priori, that the most immediate challenges will not appear unexpectedly, as happened with the pandemic and the aforementioned banking crisis, and therefore, planning, dialogue, consensus and open-mindedness should guide the Government’s decision-making resulting from the April 2 elections. It is what a country like Andorra deserves, and what many of its citizens demand.
