Brigitte Boccone-Pagès becomes the first woman President of the National Council
The one who was until then vice-president of the National Council made the choice of continuity.
After the resignation of the President of the National Council Stéphane Valeri, on September 28, Vice-President Brigitte Boccone-Pagès was elected yesterday evening, Thursday October 6, President of the Assembly of Monegasque elected officials. A first for a woman in the history of this 111-year-old institution.
“I am aware of the symbolic value of this election. This, I hope, will inspire all the young women who watch us to pursue their dreams.”, she commented during her installation speech. With this election, Monaco joins a very limited list of countries whose Assembly is represented by a woman (in 2020, out of 190 parliaments in the world, only 58 women held this position according to the UN).
All present in the hemicycle, the 22 national councilors therefore voted unanimously for Brigitte Boccone-Pagès to succeed Stéphane Valeri. As a reminder, the latter left the presidency of the National Council to take the reins of the Société des Bains de Mer (SBM) in April 2023 and thus take the place of the current Deputy President, Jean-Luc Biamonti.
For his part, Balthazar Seydoux, who until now was chairman of the Finance and National Economy Commission, was unanimously elected by his colleagues to occupy the post of vice-chairman.
Continuity as a guideline
If she claims to occupy her new role with “humility and determination”Brigitte Boccone-Pagès does not foresee any major changes, and indicates that her election is a continuation of the action of her predecessor. “It is a question of continuing on the path of the commitments that were made to the Monegasques in 2018 and throughout this term of office”.
On this subject, the new President of the National Council made particular reference to the housing of Monegasques:
“This question goes well beyond the confines of our Hemicycle because it is rightly concerned about all Monegasques whose situation justifies it, who are waiting to be well housed in their own country. Thanks to the vast schedule of state housing deliveries announced in 2019, the first objective, which was to reduce the shortage of recent years, will be achieved in 2023. However, resolving this critical situation was only the first part of the question, since we know that enough new housing must be built each year to avoid a new shortage. To date, the account is not there to ensure the future, we will come back to it during our budgetary exchanges. On this very crucial subject, I obviously place myself in a logic of perfect continuity. »
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Note that the next national elections will take place in February 2023.