Good morning and welcome to this new episode of Local Matters. As you all know by now, Luxembourg heads to the polls this Sunday to vote in the parliamentary elections. Well, not all of Luxembourg votes. Only those who are at least 18 years old and only those with the Luxembourgish nationality get a say. On Local Matters this week, we talk about voting rights for foreign nationals and political participation.
In just a few days, less than 300,000 Luxembourgers will decide who will govern the nation of 670,000 residents for the next five years. Only 53 percent of all residents are Luxembourg nationals, and they hold the exclusive privilege to vote on national level. Since this year, non-Luxembourgish residents can vote on municipal level as we have done in June – but there is still no right to vote on national level.
This has raised concerns and debate. Sergio Ferreira, head of political campaigning with the immigrant workers' rights association, Asti, finds this situation unacceptable. Ferreira not only questions the legitimacy of the government but also its quality.
"If only a part of the population chooses who represents us, they will only represent the interests of those who vote, and not the interests of the entire society."
In this year’s election campaigns, voting rights for foreigners don’t play much of a role. Since the 2015 referendum on voting rights, the topic has been off table. In 2015, parliament asked all Luxembourgish citizens if they approved a right to vote for all residents who have lived in Luxembourg for at least ten years regardless of their nationality. And 78 percent of the Luxembourgers voted NO. Even more people were against the right to vote for 16- and 17-year-olds. The latest reform of the constitution therefore was concluded without changing the voting rights.
In the past days, my colleague Tracy and I have asked all the major parties how they feel about the right to vote for foreigners. All parties that form the coalition of the current government more or less agree on this point. In theory, they all say foreign residents should have the right to vote, but not now because the Luxembourgers voted against it in 2015. A new referendum is not planned, as well according to Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who says his party respects the outcome of the previous referendum. The coalition partners all agree: More participation for foreigners yes, voting rights yes, in theory, but not now. The opposition parties don’t agree just as much. The CSV, together with the ADR, disagree completely. In 2009, Luxembourg facilitated integration by allowing dual nationality. For the CSV’s lead candidate Luc Frieden, this is enough.
"I introduced dual nationality because I was convinced that newcomers needed to participate in the electoral process. Giving the right to vote to foreigners isn’t the right way." ADR-candidate Fernand Karteiser follows the same argumentation.
For Asti’s campaigner Sergio Ferreira though, this argument doesn’t work: "We have a very particular situation. We have to give particular answers."
For now, we have to accept that only half of Luxembourg’s population gets to decide – UNLESS we launch a revolution which I don’t see happening in Luxembourg anytime soon.
Stay tuned for more updates as we approach the elections this Sunday. On Local Matters tomorrow, we will be joined by Christos Floros who talks about his new movement Change for Luxembourg, Change for Europe, that aims to empower political participation.
Photo: Mohamed Hassan via Pixabay