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The three-party coalition of liberals, social democrats and greens that has been in power in Luxembourg for ten years lost its majority in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. The reason is the bitter losses for the Greens.

According to the preliminary official final result, the alliance led by liberal Prime Minister Xavier Bettel had 29 seats – two seats too few to continue the traffic light coalition. Recently, the governing coalition had a narrow majority with 31 of the 60 seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

The conservative Christian Social People’s Party (CSV), which has been in opposition since 2013, is clearly the strongest party with 21 seats. CSV top candidate Luc Frieden said: “The people of Luxembourg have given the CSV a clear mandate to form the next government.” His goal is to form a strong majority in the next parliament ‘that also fits together thematically’. He will tackle this task in the coming hours.

According to the election leadership, the Greens lost five mandates compared to the 2018 elections – and gained only four seats. The Liberals won 14 seats (plus 2), the Social Democrats 11 seats (plus 1). The CSV remained stable with 21 mandates. The right-wing ADR received 5 mandates (plus 1).

Liberals are happy

Prime Minister Bettel (50) of the Liberals was happy with the good result for his party. “We are the party of the major parties that has gained the most. “I think that after such an election result, we should be prepared to take responsibility in the next government,” he told his party’s supporters. “The DP has a responsibility to continue.” The top candidate of the Social Democrats, Paulette Lenert, also said: “We are here. We are ready to talk.”

The Green Party’s top candidate Sam Tanson said of her party’s poor showing: “It was obviously a huge disappointment. I had hoped for a better result.” And the Minister of Green Mobility, François Bausch, said: “This is a real defeat that we have suffered today.” Many have decided to ‘blow the Greens out of government as the smallest part’. According to him, a two-party coalition is now emerging between CSV and the liberal DP.

A return of the CSV to government after ten years of opposition was the stated goal of the party’s top candidate, Luc Frieden. After the 2013 elections, the CSV failed to find a government majority under former Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker. Frieden (60) is known as an experienced former Minister of Finance in Luxembourg.

Compulsory voting: 90 percent participation

About 284,000 eligible voters were called on Sunday to vote in Luxembourg to elect a new parliament. Voting is compulsory in the second smallest country in the EU with around 660,000 inhabitants. Turnout in the 2018 elections was around 90 percent.

Luxembourg’s complicated electoral system allows not only the election of party lists, but also the allocation of votes to individual politicians from different parties. The counting of votes therefore took until late in the evening. The polling stations were open from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. (sda/dpa)