25 October 2013

Luxembourg heads towards three-party coalition

Xavier Bettel, mayor of Luxembourg City and leader of Luxembourg's liberal party, has been asked to form the next government of the tiny country, sidelining long-serving Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker.

As reported by European Voice, Luxembourg's head of state, Grand Duke Henri, today invited the leader of Luxembourg's liberal party to attempt to form a coalition government, effectively heralding the end of Jean-Claude Juncker's 18-year prime ministership.

Under Luxembourg's procedures for forming a government after parliamentary elections, the Grand Duke, may appoint an "informateur", who takes soundings on who is best placed to form a government and reports back, or a "formateur", who is charged with attempting to form the next government. Earlier in the week, the Grand Duke named Georges Raverani, the head of the country's administrative court, as informateur. Today he went a step further and named Xavier Bettel as formateur.

Reuters reported that Bettel, leader of the Democratic Party (DP) which increased its parliamentary presence after last Sunday's election, is set to form a government with the Greens and Socialists. The three parties have already said they are ready to work together in a coalition. If the talks are successful, it would be the first time since 1974 that a Luxembourg prime minister has not been chosen from the ranks of Juncker's Christian Social People's Party (CSV), which has ruled the country for all but five years of the post-war era.

The CSV lost three seats in the election, although remained the strongest party with 23 in the 60-seat parliament, while the DP added four seats and now has 13. With the 13 seats of the Socialists and the six seats won by the Greens, the three parties would have a slim 32-seat majority and could form what has been called a "Gambia" coalition after the red, blue and green stripes of that country's flag.  

European Voice continued that Michel Wolter, the president of the CVS party, had said that electors would not understand how coalition talks could take place without the largest party. Juncker, who has been prime minister since 1995 was in Brussels today for a European Council, where he declined to comment on political developments in Luxembourg.

Étienne Schneider, Luxembourg's minister for the economy and trade, and one of the leaders of the centre-left Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), which has been in a coalition government with the CVSP, said earlier this week that any coalition government was unlikely to be in place before December. The current government will remain in office until then. 

See also: Despite holding the largest number of seats in Luxembourg’s parliament, Jean-Claude Juncker and the CSV are on the verge of being pushed out of government © LSE