Politics
Since March 2003, Saint Pierre and Miquelon has been an overseas collectivity with a special statute. The archipelago became an overseas territory in 1946, then an overseas department in 1976, before acquiring the status of territorial collectivity in 1985. The archipelago has two communes, Saint Pierre and Miquelon-Langlade. A third commune, Isle-aux-Marins, existed until 1945, when it was absorbed by the municipality of Saint-Pierre. The inhabitants possess French citizenship and suffrage. Saint Pierre and Miquelon send a senator and a deputy to the National Assembly of France in Paris, and enjoy an amount of autonomy concerning taxes, customs and excise.
France appoints the Prefect of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, who represents the national government in the territory. He is in charge of national interests, law enforcement, public order and, under the conditions set by the statute of 1985, administrative control. The prefect as of 2012 is Jean-Régis Borius. The local legislative body, the Territorial Council (French: Conseil Territorial), has 19 members: four councillors from Miquelon-Langlade and 15 from Saint-Pierre. The President of the Territorial Council is the head of a delegation of "France in the name of Saint Pierre and Miquelon" for international events such as the annual meetings of NAFO and ICCAT.
France is responsible for the defence of the islands. The Maritime Gendarmerie has maintained a patrol boat, the Fulmar, on the islands since 1997. Law enforcement in Saint Pierre and Miquelon is the responsibility of a branch of the French Gendarmerie Nationale. There are two police stations in the archipelago.
Read more about this topic: Sport In Saint Pierre And Miquelon
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“All you can be sure about in a political-minded writer is that if his work should last you will have to skip the politics when you read it. Many of the so-called politically enlisted writers change their politics frequently.... Perhaps it can be respected as a form of the pursuit of happiness.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)
“All is politics in this capital.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of one’s own destruction, has become a “biological” need.”
—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)