© Luc Rollmann / RTL
'Courage for Change' is the campaign slogan of the young party led by Frank Engel. 50 to 60 members joined Fokus' national congress on Saturday, where officials stressed the need for a new approach.
Party members advocate for a basic income for people above the age of 65, as well as a reforming of the state council and the right to vote. The latter would involve the introduction an active right to vote for youths aged 16 and a so-called passive right to vote for Luxembourgers living abroad.
Fokus further believes that people should be able to directly elect the Prime Minister, who can then form a government. To better integrate foreign residents, the party proposes to elect a reformed and representative 'National Council for Foreigners'.
Housing
A central issue of Fokus' campaign efforts is housing. The party argues that widespread leasehold construction in municipalities with potential for higher population numbers is needed, and believe that acceptance of leasehold homes can be improved through effective communication. They also argue that that administrative barriers in the way of tiny houses need to be resolved.
Fokus also proposes to abolish the real estate tax on people's homes and rented flats on the one hand, and raise it on vacant properties on the other.
Education
Fokus demands the creation of a ten-year education plan, a process in which they want to involve all relevant actors. Literacy programmes in both German and French should be considered and the rating system by points reintroduced as of Cycle 3.1, the party further says.
When it comes to secondary education, Fokus wants to reintroduce the possibility for 7e-5e students to fail their year to prevent them from ending up in a "dead end" later on.
According to Fokus, school should be mandatory until the age of 16 rather than 18, as recently proposed by Minister of Education Claude Meisch.
Healthcare
The party argues that waiting periods for MRIs, scanners, and other medical examinations have to be reduced by expanding on-call duty and increasing the number of specialists at the hospital.
Fokus further demands a monitoring of medical equipment, infrastructure, medicine supply, doctors, and care staff. By opening a university hospital, Luxembourg would be able to increase its attractiveness for medical students and help counteract shortages in the sector, stated the party.
Indexation reform
Minimum-wage workers earning less than the median income (less than €3,600 per month) should have a higher wag-indexation rate than is currently the case, noted Fokus officials during the congress.
For people earning more than €160,000 per year, the 2.5% index rate should decrease in degressive manner.
