Portal:Andorra/Selected biography
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Selected biography 1
Portal:Andorra/Selected biography/1
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (French: [emanɥɛl makʁɔ̃]; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has been serving as the 25th president of France since 2017 and ex officio one of the two Co-princes of Andorra. He previously was Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs under President François Hollande from 2014 to 2016 and Deputy Secretary-General to the President from 2012 to 2014. He has been a member of Renaissance since he founded it in 2016.
Born in Amiens, Macron studied philosophy at Paris Nanterre University. He completed a master's degree in public affairs at Sciences Po and graduated from the École nationale d'administration in 2004. He worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances and as an investment banker at Rothschild & Co. Appointed Élysée deputy secretary-general by President François Hollande shortly after his election in May 2012, Macron was one of Hollande's senior advisers. Appointed Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs in August 2014 in the second Valls government, he led a number of business-friendly reforms. He resigned in August 2016, in order to launch his 2017 presidential campaign. A member of the Socialist Party from 2006 to 2009, he ran in the election under the banner of En Marche, a centrist and pro-European political movement he founded in April 2016.
Partly as a result of the Fillon affair which sank the Republican nominee François Fillon's chances, Macron topped the ballot in the first round of voting, and was elected President of France on 7 May 2017 with 66.1% of the vote in the second round, defeating Marine Le Pen of the National Front. At the age of 39, he became the youngest president in French history. In the 2017 legislative election in June, his party, renamed La République En Marche! (LREM), secured a majority in the National Assembly. Macron was elected to a second term in the 2022 presidential election, again defeating Le Pen, thus becoming the first French presidential candidate to win reelection since Jacques Chirac defeated Jean-Marie Le Pen in 2002. His centrist coalition lost its absolute majority in the 2022 legislative election, resulting in a hung parliament and the formation of France's first minority government since the fall of the Bérégovoy government in 1993. Macron's current prime minister is Gabriel Attal, youngest head of government in French history and first openly gay man to hold the office, whom he appointed in January 2024 to replace Élisabeth Borne, the second female Prime Minister of France, after a major government crisis. Following crushing defeat at the 2024 European Parliament elections, Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called for a snap legislative election which resulted in another hung parliament and electoral defeat for his ruling coalition. It was only the third time in the French Republic's history that a president lost an election he called of his own initiative.
During his presidency, Macron has overseen several reforms to labour laws, taxation, and pensions; and has pursued a renewable energy transition. Dubbed "president of the rich" by political opponents, increasing protests against his domestic reforms and demanding his resignation marked the first years of his presidency, culminating in 2018–2020 with the yellow vests protests and the pension reform strike. In foreign policy, he called for reforms to the European Union (EU) and signed bilateral treaties with Italy and Germany. Macron conducted €40 billion in trade and business agreements with China during the China–United States trade war and oversaw a dispute with Australia and the United States over the AUKUS security pact. From 2020, he led France's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccination rollout. In 2023, the government of his prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, passed legislation raising the retirement age from 62 to 64; the pension reforms proved controversial and led to public sector strikes and violent protests. He continued Opération Chammal in the war against the Islamic State and joined in the international condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Full article...) As president of France, Macron also serves ex officio as one of the two co-princes of Andorra. His chief of staff Patrick Strzoda serves as his representative in this capacity. Joan Enric Vives i Sicília, appointed as the current Bishop of Urgell on 12 May 2003, serves as Macron's co-prince. Macron swore the Constitution of Andorra through Strzoda in an act that took place on 15 June 2017 in Casa de la Vall.[1]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Andorran government asked France for economic aid, but Macron refused, arguing that the Bank of France could not offer loans to another country without the approval of the European Central Bank.[2]
Selected biography 2
Portal:Andorra/Selected biography/2
Joan-Enric Vives i Sicília (Catalan: [ʒuˈan ənˈriɡ ˈbiβəz i siˈsili.ə]; born 24 July 1949) is a Spanish cleric who has served as Bishop of Urgell and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra since 2003. This makes him a joint head of state (alongside the President of France) and one of the two Catholic religious figures in the world who also leads a country, the other such prelate being the pope himself (who leads Vatican City).
He holds the rank of archbishop as a personal distinction, his diocese being a suffragan diocese. (Full article...) Vives i Sicília was born in 1949 in Barcelona as the third son of Francesc Vives i Pons and of Cornèlia Sicília Ibáñez, who were small retailers.[3] He entered the seminary in 1965 and studied humanities, philosophy and theology.[4] In 1974, Vives was ordained a priest in his native parish Santa Maria del Taulat de Barcelona. He was later nominated as auxiliary bishop of Barcelona (and titular bishop of Nona) in 1993, and consecrated to the episcopacy and automatically became a member of the Spanish Episcopal Conference.[3] Pope John Paul II nominated him as coadjutor bishop of Urgell in 2001.[3] After two years, on the retirement of his predecessor Joan Martí Alanis in 2003, he succeeded him as Bishop of Urgell on 12 May 2003, and hence therefore as co-prince of Andorra in the Principality of Andorra located in the heights of the Pyrenees Mountains.[5] On 10 July 2003, he carried out the Constitutional Oath as the new Co-Prince of Andorra at "Casa de la Vall", Andorra la Vella. Vives i Sicília was later elevated to archbishop as a personal title by Pope Benedict XVI in March 2010.[3]
Upon reaching age 75 on 25 July 2024, Archbishop Vives, like other bishops, became subject to being required to retire, with the Pope having the right to name the bishop who will eventually succeed him. On 12 July, Pope Francis named Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat as coadjutor bishop. As a result, Serrano will succeed Archbishop Vives when the archbishop retires, although the Pope did not immediately require Archbishop Vives to do so.[6][7]
- ^ "Macron promet la Constitució a través del seu representant a Casa de la Vall". Archived from the original on 8 November 2023.
- ^ "Coronavirus: Face à la crise, l'Andorre demande de l'aide à la France, qui lui envoie une fin de non-recevoir". L'Indépendant. 14 May 2020. Archived from the original on 17 November 2022. Retrieved 17 November 2022.
- ^ a b c d "L'Arquebisbe" [The Archbishop]. Bisbat d'Urgell (in Catalan). p. 1. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
- ^ "L'Arquebisbe" [The Archbishop]. Bisbat d'Urgell (in Catalan). p. 2. Archived from the original on 17 June 2021. Retrieved 2022-06-03.
- ^ "RINUNCE E NOMINE, 12.05.2003" [WAIVERS AND APPOINTMENTS, 12.05.2003]. Bulletin of the Holy See Press Office (in Italian). Holy See Press Office. 12 May 2003. Archived from the original on 10 November 2021. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
- ^ Coppen, Luke (12 July 2024). "Pope names next prince-bishop of Andorra". The Pillar.
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: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Vives i Sicília, Joan-Enric (25 July 2024). "Acollim el nou Bisbe Coadjutor". Bisbat d'Urgell (in Catalan). Retrieved 26 July 2024.
El Concili Vaticà II va disposar que, en complir 75 anys, els Bisbes posem el nostre ministeri en mans del Sant Pare perquè sigui lliure d'acceptar-nos la jubilació i nomenar-nos un successor. I així s'ha esdevingut a Urgell: el passat dia 12 de juliol el Sant Pare va nomenar Bisbe Coadjutor d'Urgell Mons. Josep-Lluís Serrano Pentinat [...] perquè vingui a ajudar-me en el ministeri episcopal a la Diòcesi d'Urgell, i quan el Papa ho decideixi, em succeeixi com a Bisbe i Copríncep d'Andorra.