Seborga, the hilltop village on the Italian Riviera that has styled itself an independent principality for more than 60 years, has begun the process of choosing its next head of state, with Princess Nina calling elections for Sunday 22nd November as her seven-year mandate draws to a close.
Perched in the hills above Bordighera, a few kilometres from the French border and with views over Monaco, the village of around 300 residents will go to the polls to elect a prince — or princess — in a tradition its people trace back to the Middle Ages. The principality issued the call this week, opening an electoral process that will run until the November vote.
A principality born of an old argument
For centuries, Seborga was a fief of the Cistercian abbots of Lérins, off the coast of Cannes, who held the title of Prince of Seborga, used in particular from the 17th century. Its modern incarnation, however, dates to the 1960s, when a local mimosa grower, Giorgio Carbone, immersed himself in the village’s archives and concluded that Seborga had never been legally absorbed into the Kingdom of Sardinia, nor later into a unified Italy — and so, he argued, remained sovereign.
Carbone persuaded his neighbours, who acclaimed him prince in 1963. He minted a currency, the luigino, drew up a constitution, chose a coat of arms and an anthem, issued stamps and set up a small ceremonial guard, taking the title His Serene Highness Giorgio I. He reigned until his death in 2009. Italy has never recognised any of it: Seborgans pay Italian taxes and vote in Italian elections like any other citizens.
From Giorgio I to Princess Nina
After Carbone’s death, the businessman Marcello Menegatto was elected Prince Marcello I in 2010 and re-elected in 2017, before abdicating in 2019. He was succeeded by Nina Menegatto, who in November 2019 became the first woman elected to the role, defeating Laura Di Bisceglie, a daughter of Giorgio I, by 122 votes to 69.
German-born and a graduate of the International University of Monaco, where she took an MBA, Princess Nina had served as the principality’s councillor for foreign affairs from 2010 and has since worked to raise Seborga’s profile abroad. When Monaco Life interviewed her, she spoke of her ambition to “put Seborga on the map”, and of her determination to preserve the trappings of Carbone’s principality, from the luigino to the honour guard.
November’s vote
The election on 22nd November will decide who leads the self-proclaimed principality for the next seven years. Under Article 7 of Seborga’s Law on the Prince, an outgoing head of state who seeks another term is admitted automatically to the election. For now, however, Princess Nina’s intentions remain officially undeclared.
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