Monaco fears for the future without Rainier

Prince Rainier’s stamp is everywhere in the Riviera enclave of Monaco, from his hilltop palace down to the principality’s yacht-filled harbour.

Affectionately known as the “builder prince", the 81-year-old ruler whose fairy tale marriage to American actress Grace Kelly charmed millions is credited with reshaping Monaco from a sleepy seaside resort to a centre of finance and tourism.

The ailing prince remained in the intensive care unit at a Monaco hospital today for a third day, hooked to a respirator after suffering kidney and heart failure.

The palace gave no medical update on his condition, and a member of Rainier’s entourage said it was unchanged.

Rainier’s declining health has prompted many here to contemplate the future and lament what they see as the end of a five-decade golden era that gave birth to modern Monaco.

“Monaco is Prince Rainier,” said Boisson Lucien, an 83-year-old whose family has lived in Monaco since 1714, when, according to him, “there was nothing along the coast but olive trees and fisherman’s huts.”

“Prince Rainier built this country,” he said.

To be sure, the prince had some help from his family: The Grimaldi dynasty has ruled Monaco for seven centuries. But it was Rainier’s grandiose dreams that jump-started Monaco’s now-thriving economy and sparked a construction craze that hasn’t stopped for a half century.

Wedged between France and Italy and hemmed in by the mountains and the Mediterranean, Monaco has spent the past decades exploiting all possible directions of growth – down underground, up in the sky and out to the sea.

Elegant mansions, high-rises and hotels are crammed onto its craggy cliffs. To save precious surface area, Monaco has built shopping malls and its train station underground.

The principality has always been a magnet for wealth. Its almost non-existent income taxes and secretive banking system create a haven for those with money, while the luxurious Monte Carlo casino and clubs give them plenty to spend it on.

Rainier’s 1956 wedding to Kelly endowed Monaco with its celebrity mystique. Today, stars like former Swedish tennis great Bjorn Borg are among those who reap the benefits of the principality’s tax policies.

Bolstering its image as a playground for the rich, Monaco’s streets are turned into a race course every spring for the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.

A few years ago, Rainier found a solution to a problem fit for a princedom. Its picturesque harbour was too small to host the luxury yachts and cruise liners that came calling.

So Monaco is building a breakwater due for completion by 2007 that is longer than a football field and is touted as the largest in the world not grounded in the seabed.

Since Rainier assumed the throne in 1949, Monaco has expanded its territory by 20% with land reclamation. As an official government handout points out: “The principality is therefore the only country to have recently increased its territory by 20% through peaceful means.” The non-imperialistic expansion occurred in the early 1980s.

Even with the extra land, Monaco remains tiny. Less than one square mile in all, its 32,000 residents are crammed into a space smaller than London’s Hyde Park.

“It’s not all pretty,” said Frenchman Pierre Lesesvre, 79, who divides his time between homes in France and Monaco. “But it is extraordinary.”

Monaco has the trappings of an independent state – a seat at the United Nations since 1993, a flag, a passport, postage stamps and a legislative council that drafts bills for the prince to sign.

But many wonder what the post-Rainier future holds – and whether Monaco’s fate will be to melt into neighbouring France.

France’s shadow looms large. Monaco’s language is French, the currency was French francs and is now the euro, and the principality has no airport. To fly to Monaco, a traveller’s best bet is to land in the French city of Nice and hop on a helicopter taxi that costs £50 for a six-minute ride.

Rainier’s line of succession is assured through Prince Albert, his 47-year-old bachelor son.

“Prince Albert is very liked here,” said Lesesvre, the Frenchman. “Some might ask if Albert has what it takes to fill Prince Rainier’s shoes. But to the Monegasques, anything is better than Monaco passing into French hands.”

The people of Monaco – referred to as Monegasques – prefer not to talk just yet about the next Grimaldi to take the throne.

“Prince Rainier is everything for us,” said Lucien. “Look at Monaco today. It’s the most beautiful place in the world.”

“We know he’s going to die. It will be a catastrophe,” Lucien said matter-of-factly. “When Prince Rainier dies nothing will be the same. It’s that simple.”