Andorra
Long isolated and impoverished, mountainous Andorra has achieved considerable prosperity since World War II through its tourist industry. Many immigrants (legal and illegal) are attracted to the thriving economy with its lack of income taxes. An estimated 10 million people visit each year, drawn by the winter sports, summer climate and duty-free goods. The banking sector also enjoys a tax-haven status.
Institutional and constitutional reforms began in the 1980s. With their completion in 1993, the first Andorran Constitution was passed, establishing a parliamentary co-principality. At this, both France and Spain explicitly recognized the sovereignty of Andorra, which has since applied for membership of the Council of Europe. For more than 700 years, however, Andorra has been ruled jointly by the leader of France and the Spanish Bishop of Urgel. Co-princes are Andorra's heads of state but their roles are largely honorary. Two parties – the Uniò Liberal (UL) and the Agrupament Nacional Democràtic (AND), dominate domestic politics. Following a comprehensive victory in the February 1997 poll, at which the UL took 18 of the 28 seats on the Council General, a UL government took office under the leadership of Prime Minister Marc Forné Molné. Four years later, in 2001, the electorate returned the Molné government for a second term, again with an absolute majority.
Albert Pintat of the center-right Liberal Party became prime minister at general elections in April 2005. The party lost its absolute majority but won exactly half of the seats in the 28-member parliament. The center-left Social Democrats have 12. Pintat had been foreign minister in the government of the former premier, Liberal leader Marc Forne, who had led the government since 1994.
There are currently no known threats to expatriate travelers or residents in Andorra, a stable democracy in the mountains between France and Spain.
