Luxembourg - 2023 Elections
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has a constitutional monarchy and a democratic parliamentary form of government with a popularly elected unicameral parliament called the Chamber of Deputies. The prime minister is the leader of the dominant party or party coalition in parliament. In 2018 the country held parliamentary elections that observers considered free and fair. The Grand Ducal Police maintain internal security and report to the Ministry of Internal Security. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security forces.
There were no reports of significant human rights abuses. The government had mechanisms in place to identify and punish officials who may commit human rights abuses. There were no reports that members of the security forces committed abuses. There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.There were no reports of political prisoners or detainees. There were no reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities.
Freedom of the press is provided for by the constitution and generally respected in practice. The Independent Luxembourg Broadcasting Authority regulates the country’s media market. A single conglomerate, Radio Television Luxembourg, dominates broadcast radio and television, though numerous print, online, and foreign news sources are also available and present a broad range of views.
No laws limit the participation of women and members of minority groups in the political process, and they did participate. The law requires that 40 percent of the party candidate lists submitted for national elections be from “the underrepresented gender.” If a party fails to meet the quota, the law provides a graduated scheme of reducing its yearly financial subsidy from the government, based on the extent of failure to meet the criteria. The country’s five major parties all met the 40 percent criterion in their candidate lists for the parliamentary elections.
In Luxembourg, voting in elections is mandatory if you are registered on the electoral roll. In case of abstention, the penalties can range from 100 to 1,000 euros fine for the refractory citizen. Only a few cases can be excused. This is particularly true for voters over 75 years of age or those unable to vote for professional reasons. Luxembourg citizens are called to vote from the age of 18 and are automatically registered on the electoral roll. For the elections of deputies, the country is divided into 4 constituencies: the Center represented by 21 deputies, the South 23 deputies, the North 9 deputies and the East 7 deputies. Each voter has a maximum number of votes equivalent to the number of members of parliament in their constituency. Each voter can distribute his votes according to several choices. The voter may vote for an entire list representing a single political party. Or a voter may distribute votes by name among several candidates, even if they belong to different political parties. The voter can give an advantage to one or more candidates by giving them 2 votes maximum.
Luxembourg's legislative election results on 08 October 2023 left the liberal-led coalition without a majority, making it likely the country's long-dominant centre-right party will gain influence. The centre-right Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) - which was led for 19 years by EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker - was on course to be the largest party and would end Xavier Bettel’s 10 years as prime minister of a three-party coalition and only the second non-CSV leader for Luxembourg since World War Two. The Greens, previously the third party in government, took a hit and lost four seats, ending the governing liberal-led coalition's majority. Meanwhile, the far-right party ADR made significant wins, becoming the country's fourth party before the Greens.
As the lead candidate of the largest party, Luc Frieden (CSV) could become the next Prime Minister of Luxembourg, although as an individual candidate he secured fewer votes (30,999) than incumbent DP Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (34,018) - both were running in the Centre district.
Grand Duke Henri named CSV lead candidate Luc Frieden as “formateur,” which means he will lead coalition talks to form a new government. “Formateur” literally means a ‘former’ or ‘instructor’ but is a prospective PM who has formally been given a mandate to assemble and put forward a cabinet to the grand duke that will secure a parliamentary vote of confidence. A formateur is named when the shape of a government is clear, but a coalition agreement still needs to be brokered. There is no guarantee that a formateur’s talks will succeed and it is possible that the grand duke could name another formateur if negotiations stall or fail.
Since winning unanimous support from the CSV (Christian Social People's Party) on 01 February 2023, Luc Frieden marked his return to politics after a decade by heading up his party's lists going into the elections. After the CSV's removal from power in favour of the DP-LSAP-Green coalition in 2013, the party has been on the hunt for a new face to rival the stature of Jean-Claude Juncker, who served as Prime Minister for over 18 years.
Best placed to govern with the CSV, however, is the DP. The party is the big winner of the elections in terms of number of seats, having picked up two for a total of 14 (its most since 1999 when it won 15). It is furthermore the only party of the ten-year coalition to emerge, now, with greater responsibility than when it joined. Xavier Bettel, the incumbent Prime Minister, was a clear choice to be the DP's lead candidate, thanks to his proven record in leading the government over the past decade. From 2013 to 2023, Bettel showed he had the confidence and charisma to lead Luxembourg through a series of successive crises on both a national and European level. At the age of 50, Bettel continued to enjoy high popularity ratings among the electorate.
Luc Frieden (CSV) had already made contact with the LSAP’s Lenert. “But we haven’t talked about a coalition,” she said. Disappointed that the “Gambia” coalition of the last ten years cannot hold, Lenert says she is ready to take part in a government with the CSV. She believes that the differences that emerged during the campaign on key issues--the general reduction in working hours and the increase in taxes, including the reintroduction of personal income tax--won’t stand in the way of a governing agreement.
Questions remained about potential coalition partners and leadership roles. It won’t be the ADR, déi Lénk or the Pirates. Neither, more surprisingly, will it be déi Gréng. Sam Tanson, fatalistic and stunned by her defeat, is preparing for her party to return to the opposition benches. Her aim is to ensure that the future government does not ignore environmental imperatives, as her colleague François Bausch strongly suspects they might.
The Pirates were also preparing for another five years in opposition, although they picked up a seat (from two to three). Sven Clement has already announced that that his party will contribute even more questions (stipulating that they will remain “constructive”) and, its voice amplified, exercise greater control. Déi Lénk, for its part, is relieved to have kept its two seats. Marc Baum, the candidate elected in the south, regrets that Luxembourg’s political spectrum is becoming more right-wing, and called for vigilance.
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