Monaco’s National Council opened its spring session on Thursday 2 April with the re-election of Thomas Brezzo as president and Jean-Louis Grinda as vice-president, marking the first session since the formation of a new minority group within the chamber.
Brezzo received 20 votes in the secret ballot, with four blank ballots recorded. Jean-Louis Grinda was elected vice-president with 21 votes in his favour and three blanks.
The session was the first to reflect the new political configuration of the Hémicycle, following the departure of three former majority councillors — Régis Bergonzi, Roland Mouflard and Brigitte Boccone-Pagès — who have formed the minority group En Avant Monaco.
Maryse Battaglia, who presided over the opening of the session as the chamber’s most senior member, addressed the new dynamic directly. “A minority is a sign of democratic good health, provided the rules of the game are respected. I want to believe that our minority will be a force of contradiction, without becoming a force of paralysis. Disagreement keeps a chamber alive; obstruction freezes it,” she said.
In his address following re-election, Brezzo reflected on the changed composition of the chamber. “It is a choice made by former colleagues whom I respect and which, in my view, will elevate our debates and reinforce the democratic character of the decisions we take here,” he said, adding that the spirit of Monaco’s constitutional monarchy was not to organise a sterile battle between majority and opposition, but to allow the assembly, in the diversity of its composition, to establish the conditions for constructive dialogue with the government.
Grinda, a former minority councillor himself, closed on a similar note. “What brings us together is certainly much stronger than what divides us. Despite our disagreements, we were all working for the common good.”
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Main photo source: Conseil National de Monaco