The country has a multi-party system, traditionally defined by the existence of three large political parties: the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), the Democratic Party (DP), and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP). Historically, the three parties have won a large majority of the votes between them, but their total percentage has fallen recently, such that two additional parties, The Greens and the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) have recorded over 8% of votes at each of last two legislative elections. The CSV and its predecessor (Party of the Right) has provided the Prime Minister for all but 12 years since 1918, and has always been the largest party in the legislature. In this respect, Luxembourg has certain features of a dominant-party system, although coalition governments are the norm and the previous two governments from 2013 to 2023 did not involve the CSV.
Compulsory voting
Luxembourg's electoral system operates on the basis of compulsory voting, with a few exceptions. Luxembourg citizens aged under 75 years who reside in Luxembourg are required to vote, unless they reside in a different municipality from the one in which they are called to vote.[1]
Luxembourg citizens aged over 75 years, as well as Luxembourg citizens of any age who do not reside in Luxembourg, are not required to vote. If they choose to register to vote, voting becomes mandatory for them. Non-Luxembourg citizens who are eligible to vote in municipal and/or European Parliament elections are not automatically required to vote; however, if they choose to register to vote, voting becomes mandatory for them. The failure of a person to vote when required to law to do so is punishable upon the first offence by a fine of between €100 and €250. A repeat offence within 5 years is punishable by a fine of between €500 and €1,000.[2]
Otherwise be in full possession of one's political rights (e.g. not be certified as insane).
In addition to the criteria outlined above, a person standing for election to the Chamber of Deputies must be resident in Luxembourg. Furthermore, judges and members of the Council of State cannot stand for election.[5]
Deputies are elected from four constituencies ('circonscriptions'). They are arranged geographically, as combinations of the twelve traditional cantons. The four circonscriptions are Centre, Est, Nord and Sud.[5]
As the constituencies are based on geographical regions and traditional borders, they have greatly differing populations. To reflect this, each constituency elects a different number of deputies; Sud, with 40% of the national population, elects 23 deputies, whilst Est, with only 12% of the population, elects seven. Voters can cast as many votes as their constituency elects deputies (so voters residing in Est can vote for up to seven candidates), which may be spread across party lists or concentrated in one single party.[5]
This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2024)
Since 1979, Luxembourg has elected members to the European Parliament,[5] which is the primary representative body of the EU, and, with the Council of the European Union, forms its legislative branch. Due to its small size, the Grand Duchy elects just six members out of a total of 732, which is more than only Malta (which elects five MEPs); nonetheless, Luxembourg's representation is disproportionately large compared to its population, and Luxembourg elects more MEPs per capita than any other country (see: Apportionment in the European Parliament).
MEPs are elected to five-year terms. The exact date of elections is decided by Luxembourg, allowing it to schedule them on the same date as elections to the Chamber of Deputies (as is usually the case).[5]
Eligibility
To be eligible to vote in elections to the European Parliament, one must fulfil the following criteria:
Otherwise be in full possession of one's political rights (e.g. not be certified as insane) in one's country of citizenship (Luxembourg or another Member State).[7]
In addition to the criteria outlined above, any person standing for election to the European Parliament to represent Luxembourg must be resident in Luxembourg. There is one extra requirement for non-Luxembourgish citizens: they must be in full possession of their political rights in both Luxembourg and their Member State of citizenship.[8]
Electoral system
The seats are allocated according to the D'Hondt method.
Each commune (municipality) has an elected communal council. The number of councillors varies from 7 to 19 based on the number of inhabitants; the exception being the City of Luxembourg whose communal council consists of 27 members.
The councillors are directly elected every six years on the second Sunday of October. The last elections were held on 11 June 2023. The law of 15 December 2017 further defines that if the parliamentary and communal elections coincide, the latter are held in June of that year.
Referendums
The referendum was introduced into the Constitution of Luxembourg by the constitutional amendment of 1919.[9] The Constitution mentions the referendum in Article 51:[9] "Voters will be asked to vote by way of referendum in the cases and under the conditions determined by law." The only details on the carrying out of referendums are found in Article 114, which deals with constitutional amendments.[9] There are no other provisions regarding referendums in Luxembourg.
A constitutional amendment must first be passed by a two-thirds absolute super-majority of the Parliament, and then:
either passed again after at least three months under the same terms, or
passed on the referendum, if a referendum is requested in first two months of the three-month period by either:
either one quarter of members of the Parliament, or
Referendum on constitutional amendments (defined in Article 114) are binding. Referendums in general (defined in Article 51) are not explicitly stated as be binding.
The general framework of the organisational arrangements of referendums is established by the Law of 4 February 2005 on national referendums.[9]
There have been four referendums in Luxembourg since 1919:
The National Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate. The National Assembly's legislators are known as députés, meaning "delegate" or "envoy" in English; etymologically, it is a cognate of the English word deputy, the standard term for legislators in many parliamentary systems.
The Left is a democratic socialist political party in Luxembourg. On the political spectrum, it is considered a left-wing to far-left political party. The Left is associated with The Left in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL group in the European Parliament but does not have any members. The party participates in the Party of the European Left. The Left wishes to transition Luxembourg from a constitutional monarchy into a republic.
Lydie Polfer is a Luxembourgish politician who has served in a number of capacities, including Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and Mayor of Luxembourg City, as well as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and a member of the Chamber of Deputies. She is a member of the Democratic Party (DP).
Regular elections in Croatia are mandated by the Constitution and legislation enacted by Parliament. The presidency, Parliament, county prefects and assemblies, city and town mayors, and city and municipal councils are all elective offices. Since 1990, seven presidential elections have been held. During the same period, ten parliamentary elections were also held. In addition, there were nine nationwide local elections. Croatia has also held three elections to elect members of the European Parliament following its accession to the EU on 1 July 2013.
Romania elects on a national level a head of state – the president – and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The Romanian Parliament has two chambers. The Chamber of Deputies has currently 330 members, elected for a four-year term by party-list proportional representation on closed lists. The Senate has currently 136 members, elected for a four-year term by party-list proportional representation on closed lists.
The Italian Parliament is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitional National Council (1945–1946) and the Constituent Assembly (1946–1948). It is a bicameral legislature with 600 elected members and a small number of unelected members. The Italian Parliament is composed of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as the Senate of the Republic.
All elections in the Czech Republic are based on the principle of universal suffrage. Any adult citizen who is at least 18 years old can vote, except those who have been stripped of their legal capacities by a court, usually on the basis of mental illness. Elected representatives are elected directly by the citizens without any intermediaries. Election laws are not part of the constitution, but – unlike regular laws – they cannot be changed without the consensus of both houses of the Parliament. The Czech Republic uses a two-round plurality voting system for the presidential and Senate elections and an open party-list proportional representation system for all other elections. The proportional representation system uses the Sainte-Laguë method for allocating seats.
Malta elects on a national level 6 MEPs representing Malta in the European Parliament, on a district level the legislature, on a local level the local councils, and on a community level the Administrative Committees.
The Alternative Democratic Reform Party is a conservative and mildly populist political party in Luxembourg. It has five seats in the sixty-seat Chamber of Deputies, making it the fourth-largest party. In 2024, the party received its first seat in the European Parliament.
Claude Wiseler is a Luxembourgish politician, serving as the current and 40th President of the Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies since 21 November 2023 and who served as President of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) from 2021 to 2023.
The Chamber of Deputies, abbreviated to the Chamber, is the unicameral national legislature of Luxembourg. The metonym Krautmaart is sometimes used for the Chamber, after the square on which the Hôtel de la Chambre is located.
The Mäjilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, commonly referred to as Mäjilis or Mazhilis is the lower house of the Parliament of Kazakhstan, alongside the upper house Senate. Together, they form the national bicameral legislature of Kazakhstan, responsible for enacting legislation. Established by the Constitution of Kazakhstan following the 1995 constitutional referendum, the Mäjilis was first convened in 1996. The chamber plays role in the legislative process, debating and passing laws, where lawmakers discuss key issues facing the country and propose solutions to address them by representing the interests of constituents.
East is one of the four multi-member constituencies of the Chamber of Deputies, the national legislature of Luxembourg. The constituency was established in 1919 following the introduction of proportional representation for elections to the Chamber of Deputies. It consists of the cantons of Echternach, Grevenmacher and Remich. The constituency currently elects seven of the 60 members of the Chamber of Deputies using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2023 general election it had 40,246 registered electors.
Electoral districts go by different names depending on the country and the office being elected.
Xavier Bettel is a Luxembourgish lawyer and politician who serves as the 14th deputy prime minister of Luxembourg and as the minister for Foreign Affairs since 2023. He served as the 24th prime minister of Luxembourg from 2013 to 2023. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies (1999–2013) and Mayor of Luxembourg City (2011–2013).
François Bausch is a Luxembourgish politician of the Greens who served as Second Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 2019 to 2023. He is a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2023. Before entering the government in 2013 was leader of the Greens in the Chamber.
A constitutional referendum was held in Luxembourg on 7 June 2015. Although the referendum was non-binding, the government said they would adhere to the result. All three proposed constitutional amendments were ultimately rejected by voters.
General elections were held in Luxembourg on 14 October 2018. All 60 seats of the Chamber of Deputies were renewed.
The Italian electoral law of 2017, colloquially known by the nickname Rosatellum bis or simply Rosatellum after Ettore Rosato, the Democratic Party (PD) leader in the Chamber of Deputies who first proposed the new law, is a parallel voting system, which acts as a mixed electoral system, with 37% of seats allocated using a first-past-the-post electoral system and 63% using a proportional method, with one round of voting. The Chamber and Senate of the Republic did not differ in the way they allocated the proportional seats, both using the largest remainder method of allocating seats.
General elections were held in Luxembourg on 8 October 2023 to elect all 60 seats of the Chamber of Deputies.
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