Liechtenstein Government Information

GOVERNMENT

According to the Constitution, the government is a collegiate body and consists of the head of government and four governmental councilors. The head of government and ministers are appointed by the Prince, following the proposals of the Parliament.

Amendments to the constitution or new law have to be adopted by parliament, signed by both the Prince and the Head of Government, and published in the Principality's Law Gazette.

Prince Hans Adam II is the Head of State. He is entitled to exercise his right to state leadership in accordance with the provisions of the constitution and of other laws. On August 15, 2004 Prince Hans-Adam II entrusted Hereditary Prince Alois as his representative with the exercise of all sovereign rights pertaining to him, in accordance with the Liechtenstein Constitution.

He represents the state vis-à-vis foreign states. He signs international treaties either in person or delegates this function to a plenipotentiary. Some treaties under international law only become valid when they have been ratified by parliament.

The Prince's involvement in legislation includes the right to take initiatives in the form of government bills and the right to veto parliamentary proposals.

The Prince has the power to enact princely decrees. Emergency princely decrees are possible when the security and welfare of the country is at stake. A countersignature by the Head of Government is required.

The Prince has the right to convene and adjourn parliament and, for serious reasons, to adjourn it for three months or to dissolve it.

The Prince nominates the government, district and high court judges, the judges of the Supreme Court, and the presidents and their deputies of the Constitutional Court and of the Administrative Court of Appeal on the basis of the names put forward by parliament.

The Prince's other authorities include exercising the right to mitigate and commute punishments that have been imposed with legal force and the abolition -- i.e. the dismissal -- of investigations that have been initiated. All judgments are issued in the name of the Prince.

Citizens elect the parliament directly under a system of proportional representation. Until 1989, 15 members represented the population of the two constituencies (6 for the lowland area and 9 for the highland area). Since 1989 the lowland constituency has been entitled to have 10 members and the highland area 15 members.

The Parliament's main task is to discuss and adopt resolutions on constitutional proposals and draft government bills. It has the additional duties of giving its assent to important international treaties, of electing members of the government, judges and board members of the Principality's institutions, setting the annual budget and approving taxes and other public charges, and supervising the administration of the state.

The Parliament observes its rights and duties in the course of sessions of the whole parliament and through the parliamentary commissions that it elects. All members of parliament exercise their mandates in addition to their normal professions or occupations. The President of parliament and his deputy are both elected at the opening meeting for the current year. The President convenes the individual meetings during the session, leads them and represents parliament externally.

During the parliamentary recess -- normally from January to February/March -- a "state committee" assumes parliament's duties, and such a committee must also be elected in the case of any adjournment or dissolution of parliament. A "state committee" consists of the President of parliament and four other members.

The duties and working procedures of parliament are laid down in the constitution and in parliament's standing orders.

The government of Liechtenstein is based on the principle of collegiality, namely of colleagues collaborating with each other. The government consists of the Head of Government and four Councilors. The members of the government are proposed by the parliament and are appointed by the Prince. Only men or women born in Liechtenstein, and who are eligible to be elected to parliament, may be elected to the government committee. The two electoral areas of the country, the highlands and the lowlands, are entitled to at least two members of the government, and their respective deputies must come from the same area.

POLITICAL CONDITIONS
The political parties are the moving forces with regard to the composition of the government and in the parliament. For the 2005 - 2009 legislature period of office one Councilor and three deputies are women.

From 1938 to 1997 Liechtenstein had a coalition government. Until a few years ago, there were only two parties in parliament, the Fatherland Union and the Progressive Citizen's Party. Liechtenstein's distinctive form of coalition government came to an end in April 1997. The Fatherland Union took sole responsibility for the government during the 1997 to 2001 parliament, with its members filling all the positions on the government committee. Since 2001, it has been the Progressive Citizen's Party that has provided all the members of the government. The minority parties, as opposition parties, act as a check on the government in parliament and on parliamentary commissions.

In the March 2005 parliamentary election a new political party, the Free List, earned enough votes to gain three seats, preventing either of the two larger parties from gaining an absolute majority. A new Parliament was elected and a grand coalition was formed; the two strongest factions, the center-right Progressive Citizens' Party and the center-left Fatherland Union, holding 3 and 2 cabinet seats respectively. There are 25 seats in the Landtag, divided as follows: Progressive Citizen's Party 12, Fatherland Union 10, Free List 3. There are 6 women in the 25-seat Parliament and 1 in the 5-member Cabinet. Women first gained the right to vote in Liechtenstein and a growing number of women are active in politics. Women served on the executive committees of the major parties.

In March 2003, the Liechtenstein electorate endorsed with a decisive margin Prince Hans-Adam II's proposal for a revision of the Liechtenstein Constitution which granted him the power to dissolve Parliament and appoint an interim government, dismiss individual members of Government, and veto any parliamentary legislation by not signing the bill within six months. Without the approval of the reigning prince, no further constitutional amendments can be adopted, except in the case of a referendum abolishing the royal house. The Prince now also has final approval on the appointment of judges, and the State Court loses its key competence to mediate between the Government and the Prince on constitutional matters. In September 2005 an ad-hoc committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe met with a delegation of the Liechtenstein Parliament in Vaduz for a first round of talks on this change to the constitutional order. The talks are part of a dialogue that the Parliamentary Assembly chose as an alternative to a standard monitoring procedure to assess the constitutional order following the adoption in 2003 of a series of amendments to the Liechtenstein Constitution.

Principal Government Officials

Federal Departments
Otmar Hasler (Head of the Government) -- Prime Minister, Government Executive, Finance, Construction and Public Works
Klaus Tschuetscher -- Deputy Prime Minister, Economic Affairs, Justice, and Sports
Rita Kieber-Beck -- Foreign Affairs, Cultural Affairs, Family and Equal Opportunity
Hugo Quaderer -- Education, Social Affairs, Land Use Planning, Agriculture and Forestry
Martin Meyer -- Home Affairs, Public Health, Transport and Telecommunications
Robert Walner -- Attorney General
Claudia Fritsche -- Liechtenstein's Ambassador to the U.S.
Christian Wenaweser -- Permanent Representative to the UN.

Liechtenstein maintains an embassy in the United States at 1300 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005, Telephone (202) 216-0460.

Type: Hereditary constitutional monarchy.
Independence: 23 January 1719 Imperial Principality of Liechtenstein established; 12 July 1806 established independence from the Holy Roman Empire.
Constitution: 5 October 1921.
Branches: Executive--chief of state: Prince Hans Adam II (since 13 November 1989, but already assumed executive powers since 26 August 1984); Heir Apparent Prince Alois, son of the monarch, was born on June 11, 1968. Alois was appointed the permanent representative of the Prince on August 15, 2004. Head of government: Otmar Hasler (since 5 April 2001). Cabinet: Five cabinet members. The cabinet is elected by the Diet, and approved by the Prince.
Legislative--Unicameral Diet or Landtag (25 seats; members are elected by direct popular vote under proportional representation to serve four-year terms).
Judicial--District Court (low), Superior Court (medium), Supreme Court (high).
Administrative subdivisions: The country is subdivided into 11 districts.
Political parties: Fatherland Union (VU), Progressive Citizens' Party (FBP), and the Free List (FL).
Currency: Swiss Franc.
National holiday: Assumption Day, 15 August.