2009 Luxembourg general election

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2009 Luxembourg general election
Flag of Luxembourg.svg
  2004 7 June 2009 2013  

All 60 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
31 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout90.93% (Decrease2.svg 0.99 pp)
PartyLeaderVote %Seats+/–
CSV Jean-Claude Juncker 37.3426+2
LSAP Jean Asselborn 23.0013−1
DP Claude Meisch 14.319−1
Greens François Bausch 11.4870
ADR Robert Mehlen 7.694−1
The Left Collective leadership3.611+1
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Prime Minister beforePrime Minister after
Jean-Claude Juncker
CSV
Jean-Claude Juncker
CSV

General elections were held in Luxembourg on 7 June 2009, together with the 2009 election to the European Parliament. All sixty members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected for five years. The polls were topped by the Christian Social People's Party, which built upon its already high number of seats to achieve a commanding victory, with the highest vote share and number of seats of any party since 1954. Incumbent prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who was the longest-serving head of government in the European Union, renewed the coalition agreement with Deputy Prime Minister and Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party leader Jean Asselborn and formed the Juncker–Asselborn II Government, which was sworn in on 23 July 2009.

Contents

Parties

Seven parties ran candidates in all four circonscriptions, of which, five were already represented in the Chamber of Deputies: the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), the Democratic Party (DP), the Greens, and the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR). Two parties that were not then represented also ran: The Left [1] and the Communist Party (KPL). In addition, the Citizens' List, which was headed by current independent deputy Aly Jaerling, ran in two constituencies.

List #PartyRunning inSeats
Centre Est Nord Sud 2004 Pre-election
1 Communist Party (KPL) Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 00
2 Greens Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 77
3 Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 54 [2]
4 Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 1414
5 Democratic Party (DP) Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 1010
6 The Left Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 00
7 Christian Social People's Party (CSV) Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 2424
8 Citizens' List Red x.svg Red x.svg Yes check.svg Yes check.svg 01 [2]

Results

2009 Luxembourg election.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
Christian Social People's Party 1,129,36837.3426+2
Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party 695,83023.0013–1
Democratic Party 432,82014.319–1
The Greens 347,38811.4870
Alternative Democratic Reform Party 232,7447.694–1
The Left 109,1843.611+1
Communist Party of Luxembourg 49,1081.6200
Citizens' List 28,5120.940New
Total3,024,954100.00600
Valid votes190,21393.45
Invalid/blank votes13,3226.55
Total votes203,535100.00
Registered voters/turnout223,84290.93
Source: Nohlen & Stöver [3]

By locality

The CSV won a landslide victory, winning pluralities in 112 of Luxembourg's 116 communes, with the LSAP winning pluralities in four. Luxembourg legislative election 2009 communes map.png
The CSV won a landslide victory, winning pluralities in 112 of Luxembourg's 116 communes, with the LSAP winning pluralities in four.

As in 2004, the CSV won pluralities in each of Luxembourg's four circonscriptions, and pluralities in nearly all of Luxembourg's communes. Only four communes didn't register pluralities for the CSV (down from seven in 2004). Wiltz in the north and Dudelange, Kayl, and Rumelange in the southern Red Lands voted for the LSAP.

The CSV's performance improved most markedly in Centre, where it increased its vote from 35.5% to 38.6%. In Centre, the CSV received almost twice as many votes as the Democratic Party in, only ten years after the DP won a plurality by over 2%. It gained one extra seat in Centre, and another in Est.

CSVLSAPDPGreensADRLeftKPLBL
Centre38.6%17.8%19.4%13.2%6.3%3.5%1.1%0.0%
Est41.5%16.2%15.4%14.2%9.5%2.3%1.0%0.0%
Nord39.6%17.4%18.2%10.8%10.3%2.0%1.0%0.8%
Sud35.6%28.2%10.1%10.2%7.9%4.1%2.2%1.7%

Aftermath

The CSV's large margin of victory guaranteed that it would form the government once again, with Jean-Claude Juncker appointed as formateur and likely to remain as Prime Minister. Before the election, Juncker, Europe's longest-serving head of government, had told his party that he intended to step down as Minister for Finances, to be replaced by Luc Frieden. [4] This brought into question his chairmanship of the Europe-wide Eurogroup, which he had chaired since 2005. However, he has since stated that he would remain in charge of monetary policy and relations with the European Central Bank. [5]

The CSV was in a strong enough position to form a coalition with any one of three parties: LSAP (partner in the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry I), the DP (partner in the Juncker-Polfer Ministry), and the Greens (who had never previously entered the government). However, the DP and Greens had both ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the CSV, leaving only the previous coalition partners, LSAP, in the running. [6] The CSV and LSAP formed a coalition agreement, with Juncker as Prime Minister and Jean Asselborn as Deputy Prime Minister, with the new government forming on 23 July.

References

  1. The Left is technically not a party, but an electoral alliance.
  2. 1 2 Aly Jaerling was elected as a member of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party in 2004, but now sits as an independent and is running for Citizens' List.
  3. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p2051 ISBN   978-3-8329-5609-7
  4. "Juncker précise qu'il ne souhaite pas quitter la présidence de l'Eurogroupe" (in French). Le Monde. 4 June 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
  5. "ECOFIN: EU's Juncker Wants To Remain Head of Eurogroup". The Wall Street Journal. 8 June 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2009.[ dead link ]
  6. Glesener, Marc (9 June 2009). "DP und Déi Gréng sagen Nein" (in German). Luxemburger Wort. Archived from the original on 12 June 2009. Retrieved June 13, 2009.