On the heels of the national election, Luxembourg will have 46 of its 60 MPs take their oath of office on Tuesday, with 14 seasoned members of the outgoing government momentarily on hold.
On Tuesday 24 October 2023, sixteen days after the national election, the new Frieden-Bettel government is not yet in place. The coalition negotiations between the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) and the Democratic Party (DP) got off to a quick start, but will take a little longer than Luc Frieden, the future prime minister of Luxembourg, had imagined.
A tense economic situation, rising unemployment, spiking interest rates, and an alarming situation in the construction sector... all worrying factors for the future government, which will have to provide solutions to the most pressing issues in its coalition agreement.
Pending the appointment of future ministers, which will once again shake up the brand new parliamentary assembly, the Luxembourg Constitution stipulates that "the Chamber of Deputies meets in a public session ... on the third Tuesday following election day to verify the credentials of its members".
The 60 newly elected MPs will thus meet for the first time at 2.30pm on Tuesday. The public session will be chaired by Michel Wolter (CSV), who was first elected to parliament in 1984 and is now the longest-serving MP. The temporary president will be assisted for this exceptional session by the two youngest MPs: 26-year-old Liz Braz (LSAP), daughter of the former Justice Minister from The Greens, Felix Braz, and Luc Emering (DP), a 27-year-old farmer and former president of the Luxembourg Association of Rural Youth and Young Farmers.
46 MPs to be sworn in on Tuesday
The lengthiest task on Tuesday will be to verify credentials. In other words, each MP will be checked to ensure that they have fulfilled the eligibility conditions and whether or not they can exercise their future mandate. A Member of Parliament may not be a civil servant, a member of the State Council, or a minister.
As a result, only 46 of the 60 elected MPs will be able to take the oath of office on Tuesday and declare to "uphold the Constitution and the laws and to carry out [their] duties with integrity, accuracy, and impartiality". The 14 elected members of the outgoing government will not be able to take their oath at this time. If they are no longer part of the future government, they will be sworn in at a forthcoming public meeting.
Since some of the CSV and DP members sworn in on Tuesday will take on ministerial roles once the coalition agreement is in place, a number of new faces will join the Chamber soon enough.
