In the wake of heated exchanges between MPs Sven Clement and Marc Georgen on social media, the Chamber of Deputies announced on Tuesday the initiation of a probe into the Pirate Party's finances.

This move follows a series of allegations regarding the "private use of operating funds provided by the Chamber of Deputies." In a press release, the Luxembourg parliament requested that the Pirate Party political group "kindly provide a copy of all financial documents tracing its expenditures" from the beginning of the 2018 parliamentary term to the present.

These documents will be submitted to the Court of Auditors "to establish their compliance with Article 19§ 5 of the Rules of Procedure of the Chamber of Deputies, as well as to verify the veracity of the allegations." Additionally, it was decided that the Court of Auditors will from now on conduct an annual audit of the accounts of all political and parliamentary groups in the country.

This financial analysis comes amid several high-profile cases of fund misappropriation in Luxembourg, with the most recent involving Caritas. Other notable scandals in recent years have occurred within the municipality of Hesperange and the National Health Fund (CNS).

RTL

Reactions by Sven Clement and Marc Goergen

Sven Clement stated that the Pirate Party has been advocating for an audit of party's accounts for the past five years. He noted that, until now, the Chamber of Deputies had no clear rules on how political and parliamentary groups should manage their accounting. Clement added that he was unaware of the Chamber's announcement because he did not attend the Bureau meeting due to a conflict of interest.

"I must honestly say that I am a bit surprised that the Chamber communicates externally before informing those affected. I have also just told our Secretary-General this. Regarding the content of the email, we have no problem collaborating and making everything available for this legislative period. We have analytical accounting, so that is very easy to do," Clement said. He also mentioned that he has proactively gathered documents from the previous legislative period.

The political group received €2.6 million from the Chamber of Deputies for the period from 2018 to 2023 and €656,000 since the new legislative period began last year. These amounts are largely allocated to salaries.

Marc Goergen also expressed satisfaction with the Chamber of Deputies' decision, as he supports maximum transparency. "I welcome it; just yesterday, I wrote a letter to the Chamber suggesting exactly this step, that the accounts since 2016 should be reviewed. And you just told me that this decision was made this morning. Of course I welcome that," Goergen said. He believes he has nothing to reproach himself for regarding his expenses.