The minister stated that figures from abroad showed that domestic violence increased during the lockdown. This is why the government decided to take measures early on.
Besides a hotline, which had been specially set up, the ministry also guaranteed the availability of its services during the entire duration of the lockdown. The situation was continuously monitored and while figures did not show a direct increase, the website violence.lu did receive a lot of traffic.
According to Bofferding, Luxembourg’s laws against domestic violence are among the harshest in Europe. However, the government is also looking at ways to improve the existing laws, for example by using electronic tags for repeat offenders. This idea is currently being discussed in an interministerial task force. Assistance programmes are also revised on a regular basis.
When it comes to municipal finances, the minister stressed that municipalities had to act counter-cyclically at the moment, i.e. investing in times when the economy is experiencing difficulties. Five municipalities are currently at risk of closing the year with a loss. However, this was not really a problem as the corresponding law acted de facto as a sort of “debt cap”.
The Ministry of Home Affairs plans to support municipalities through grants. As such, subsidies for the construction of schools are to be raised from 35 to 40%, for instance.
