On Monday, December 13, 2021, Pope Francis received in audience, in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace, the Head of the Government of the Principality of Andorra, Xavier Espot Zamora, reported in a press release the Holy See Press Office.

Then Mr. Espot Zamora met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, who was accompanied by Monsignor Paul Richard Gallagher, Secretary for Relations with States.

Underscored during the conversation in the State Secretariat “were the excellent existing relations between the Principality and the Holy See, which are inserted in a long historical tradition of mutual collaboration and support. Also addressed were “some important topics that concern Andorran society, among them the phenomenon of migrations,” reads the note.

Xavier Espot Zamora

 According to the Andorran Government’s official Webpage, he was born in 1979 and has a Master’s from ESADE and a degree in Humanities from the Raymond Llull University. Before 2011, he worked as Mayor attached to Civil Section number 2, the Minors’ Section number 2, and the former Instruction Section number 5. Between January and May of 2009, he worked as Mayor in an internship in the High Court of Tolosa and in the courts of the first instance of Barcelona.

Espot Zamora joined the Government on November 7, 2011, under the first mandate of Antoni Marti, as State Secretary of Justice and Interior and, on July 25, 2012, he took over from Minister Marc Vila as Head of the Justice and Interior portfolio.

On January 4, 2016, he also took over the Social Affairs portfolio. He held this post until last March 1, when he tendered his resignation as Minister, to dedicate himself exclusively as a candidate of Democrats for Andorra in the general elections of last April 7.

Translation by Virginia M. Forrester