Ordino (Andorra) (AFP)

"Long live the prince!": Welcomed by children waving Andorran flags, Emmanuel Macron was Friday tour of the seven parishes of Andorra, tiny state between France and Spain that combines tax benefits, prohibition of abortion and retirement at 65 years old.

"Co-prince" of Andorra in the name of a tradition that goes back to Charlemagne, the head of state visited the parishes (communes) of Canillo, Encamp, Sant Julia de Loria and Ordino, villages cashed in the middle of mountains. And it is with pleasure that he greeted hundreds of schoolchildren who cheered him, signing their flags and assuming without complex his "charge" princely and his secular history.

"For a long time there will be two benevolent faces watching you," he told one of the mayors, referring to the portraits of the two co-princes hanging on the wall, his own and that of the archbishop of Urgell (Catalonia).

French news caught up with him when a couple of pensioners called him to boast about the retirement system in Andorra, a point system with a starting age of 65.

"The system was created in 1968, with the help of French experts who came to Andorra and said that we should not repeat the mistakes of the French system and that it was better to have an age of starting at age 65 and a points system, "he explained.

"And you're doing well and it's readable for people?" Asked the President with interest. "Yes yes," assured the husband, "and it's very fair."

Here "there is a consensus that has been created". But "when we move from one system to another, fear is sometimes there," concluded Mr. Macron while at the same time in France RATP staff launched the first union offensive against pension reform with a very followed strike.

- Tax hint, nothing about abortion -

While covering his guests with praise on the beauty of their territory, the Head of State, who defines himself as "a child of the Pyrenees", allowed a veiled criticism of the very light taxation that continues to apply Andorra, even if the principality was removed from the "gray list" of OECD tax havens in 2010.

He thus encouraged them to complete their difficult negotiations on an association agreement with the EU, arguing for "a new model, which does not rely on exemptions and facilities but on the beauty of landscapes, the strength of economic fabric ".

Before him, Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009 had put pressure for the principality to stop its tax dumping, even threatening to resign from his position as co-prince. Andorra then generalized the VAT and introduced corporate and income taxes, albeit very low, and signed a tax convention with the OECD, which then removed it from its "gray list" of tax havens. The state has also lifted banking secrecy for European citizens.

Val-de-Marne MP Albane Gaillot, who has just withdrawn from LREM, called on the head of state Thursday to ask him to intervene on this topic, as co-sovereign.

"Andorra is one of the last European states to ban abortion completely, even in the event of rape, incest of fetal illness or death for the mother," she wrote in an open letter. on Twitter, reminding her of her commitments to women's rights.

Emmanuel Macron was to speak to the people of Andorra Friday night after completing his parish tour.

© 2019 AFP