Local Matters

Today on Local Matters, we explore the challenges parents face in finding family-friendly cafés in Luxembourg. Hear from Cecile, who created a new label certifying child-welcoming spaces, and visit Florence Café in the Gare area, one of the certified spots hosting an event for new moms this afternoon.

The city of Esch has introduced an online platform where citizens can easily request a meeting with a municipal officer or alderman. The initiative aims to strengthen the direct contact between the citizens and the politicians. In our interview on Local Matters, mayor Christian Weis (CSV) explains how the city of Esch aims to foster civic participation through this and other initiatives.

Every day, racist incidents happen in Luxembourg, administrative procedures, during the job hunt or the search for housing. For Local Matters, Franziska interviewed Madeleine and Yolande from One People Asbl about discrimination during the search for housing.

The Esch Clinics have started in September. The initiative aims to reshape Esch into a model city for a just ecological transition, combining urban planning with political interventions and by integrating the voices and needs of the community. On Local Matters, César Reyes, one of the project leaders, explains how the project is going to overcome traditional ways of thinking urban spaces.

The Ministry of Home Affairs submitted a new draft law reinforcing the current 'Platzverweis' policy. It would give police officers the authority to ban people from the city centre for up to 48 hours.
On Local Matters, Franziska discusses why this law is so controversial.

On 1 August, we reached earth overshoot day. According to Greenpeace Luxembourg, the Grand Duchy could make a major impact to improve the situation worldwide. To get all the details, listen to this week's Local Matters.

For years, residents of Bascharage have been opposing the plans of the commune to build a bypass road. The municipality argues that the bypass would keep drive-through traffic out of the city centre. Residents however fear that the road will destroy local forests. Now, they took their fight to court. On Local Matters, Patrizia Arendt, president of the citizens' initiative Bigs, explains why they oppose the infrastructure works.

Abortion rights are debated again. A couple of weeks ago, the left party Déi Lenk submitted a law proposal asking for abortion rights to be enshrined in Luxembourg's constitution. On European level in the meantime, activists are collecting signatures to achieve access to safe abortions for all women in the EU. Responses from Luxembourg however have been scarce although women fight the same fight here.

Last Saturday, a crowd of protesters gathered in the town of Cattenom, close to the nuclear power plant. Anti-nuclear energy organisations from France, Germany and Luxembourg co-hosted the protest to oppose the planned extension of the Cattenom reactor lifespan. Get all the details on today's Local Matters.

Time to talk about racism again. On Local Matters today, we see how young people approach the issue, and which experiences they have made. A dozen young people spend this week together working with the association Aldic to understand what discrimination is, and how to react.

Today on Local Matters, we walk. We put on our gender glasses and join the association Kehsia for a memory walk in Luxembourg-City. The aim is to see how women are portrayed in public spaces.

On Local Matters, we have a visit to the north-eastern end of the city of Luxembourg, to the neighborhood of Kuebebierg. So far, it is only green fields and a few trees. Once finished, the Kuebebierg neighborhood will house 3000 families.

In the past years, digitisation has been a huge challenge for the National Archives. The archivists have been digitising paper documents, while planning how to store documents that exist only online. For the National Archives, digitisation is an opportunity to make archives more accessible. In our interview on Local Matters, the director of the National Archives Josée Kirps explains the recent strategies and challenges.

In the end of January, the townhall of Junglinster caught fire. The roof collapsed into the municipal archives. Even though luckily no important documents have burnt, some communes have started focusing more on the relevance of their municipal archives after the incident. On Local Matters this week, we take this as an occasion to talk about archiving.

In the beginning of this week, lawmakers in France voted in favor of making abortion rights constitutional. The planning familial Asbl has been advocating to take the same step in Luxembourg as well. In our interview on Local Matters, Ainhoa Achutegui, president of Planning Familial, explains why this is so important and how accessible abortion is in Luxembourg nowadays.

The National museum of Resistance and Human Rights in Esch was reopened last week, after almost 6 years of renovation works. On Local Matters, we've had a visit.

Follow Local Matters as we go on tour! This week in Rollingen where we explore the natural source Dreibouren and its role for the drinking water supply of Ettelbrück.

Farmers struggle to pass their family farms on because the new generation doesn’t want to be farmers anymore. For Tom Kass, one reason is the isolation that goes hand in hand with living on a farm. To avoid this, he recreated the Kass-Haff as a community project that brings people and especially kids closer to the farm. On today's Local Matters, Franziska takes you along for a visit.

Local sports history, nostalgia and success - the Stade de Thillenberg is an iconic place. On Local Matters today, we dive into the history of this stadium.

Differdange debates where to accommodate the asylum seekers. The current building at Thillenberg is in a bad condition. The heating doesn't work and the building needs renovation. The Green party suggests to relocate the refugees to the large building next door, the former hospital. The mayor has a different view.

Amélie Dolo knows: Debts make sick. And she also knows that people have to make debts to stay healthy. Amélie Dolo is the head of the Inter-Actions' over-indebtedness counseling service. In our interview on Local Matters, she explains how debts and health are related.

When something unexpected happens in life – job loss or sickness – people risk making more debts than they can afford. The Ligue Médico-sociale offers consultancy for people with excessive debts. Christian Schumacher, the head of the department, is our guest on Local Matters.

Once per year, youth gets to defend their proposals in parliament, debating with MEPs and ministers. For the president of the youth council, Liam Bremer, the Jugendkonvent is a successful tool for political participation, for Diana and Marta, it's an occasion to get their points across and to feel heard. On Local Matters, all three of them explain what political participation means to them.

In our interview on Local Matters, Charel Schmit, the Ombudsman for Children and Youth tells us how he sees the progresses that have been made and the issues that still need to be addressed to guarantee the right to participation for youth.

Violence as a means of communication is used when words are not available. At the service Riicht Eraus of the Red Cross, psychologist Daniela Cabete tries to prevent men from using violence against their family members. In our interview, she calls for a rethinking of boys' education.

On Local Matters this week, we dive into the topic of men’s tears. Upon growing up, young men learn to mask their emotions to be masculine. Often this impacts mental health, fosters depression and internalised stress. With the local association Infomann, men and boys can seek help.

How do memes help the far right in recruiting new followers of their radical ideology? On Local Matters, Mira Sorrentino explains how social media opens doors towards extremism. Mira works with the association respect.lu to keep people from pursuing radical ideologies. Tune in to learn more!

With the latest escalation in Middle East, public debate is more polarised than ever. Doors wide open for more extreme opinions and radicalisation. On today's Local Matters, Carine Weyer and Peter Kagerer explain how they avoid people from getting more radicalised with the Asbl respect.lu

At the English class for seniors at the senior club Beim Kiosk in Schifflange, learning English is one part of the deal, staying active and being together the more important one. For our third and last episode of this week's Local Matters on the risk of loneliness for elderly people, we took the microphone and participated at the English class for seniors.