With the year coming to an end, the media likes to reflect on the past twelve months from different angles.

After the super election year of 2024 with municipal and parliamentary elections, the social and European elections were on the agenda this year. However, national politics also made the headlines. In addition to discussions about the begging ban, pension reform and social dialogue, there have also been a series of scandals.

The people involved probably prefer to leave this behind them, but RTL's Marc Hoscheid has taken a closer look at the most interesting ones.

Claude Meisch, for example, is not only our Education Minister, but also Housing Minister - a lot of responsibility and work for one person, one would think.

A cup of coffee or two can't hurt, as long as you don't drop the cup, or knock it off the table. However, exactly that is said to have happened in a bistro in Luxembourg City when Meisch met privately with a senior official from the Ministry of Education.

A young lady, who was also in the bistro at the time, then publicly claimed that there had been an argument and that a cup had fallen on the floor. Meisch is said to have said that he had slapped the woman and that she deserved it.

Incidentally, Mr Meisch denies that he physically attacked the woman. In May, he was asked about the incident in an RTL programme and replied as follows:

"I don't think the incident benefited anyone; it distracted from my political work, and I also believe that everything has been said and written - both by everyone involved and by the public prosecutor. After that, I quickly focussed on my political work again."

Even though Prime Minister Luc Frieden defended Claude Meisch, it did give his cabinet a reminder that members of the government should behave in an exemplary manner at all times.

That said, the behaviour of Meisch's DP party colleague Pim Knaff was far from exemplary. The Escher council member was convicted of tax fraud. However, because he did this as a private individual and not as a politician, Knaff did not face any political consequences. On the contrary, he was much more offended by the way the Esch opposition dealt with him.

"It's an attempt to try and place my actions under general suspicion. I also find the comments that are made about it cheeky, trying to question everything I have done."

The DP in Esch had previously formed a coalition with the CSV and the Greens. While the CSV limited itself to pointing out that Pim Knaff did not lose the right to hold a political mandate as a result of the conviction, the Greens believed that if it had been one of their party members, there would have been stronger consequences. However, the anger was not great enough to leave the coalition.

This was not so much the case with Ben Polidori. Less than a year after being elected to parliament for the Pirates, the MP has turned his back on the party. The bombshell was dropped shortly before the political sensitivity report press conference. Polidori explained his decision by saying that not everyone in the party lives and practises the values that are preached to the outside world.

"I joined this party because of the values, especially because of Mr Clement, who represents such unique values. And now that I was actually inside and able to work with him, I could no longer find myself in this constellation as I had hoped. I was no longer able to assert my values in the way I had hoped from the outset."

Polidori's departure was only the beginning of a war between Sven Clement and Marc Goergen, which more than once highlighted bizarre aspects, including Marc Goergen's preference for eating at McDonald's or how often he goes to the hairdresser. By the end of the year, a number of members had left the party, including a number of local councillors. Some followed in Ben Polidori's footsteps and switched to the LSAP.

A final scandal involves Lucien Lux, who has been with the LSAP for a while now. The former minister sits on the Council of State. However, he had already been sanctioned by the Council of State in 2023 for passing on an opinion on a legislative project to the entrepreneur Flavio Becca. It took until October 2024 for further investigations to take place.

The context for this is an application by the public prosecutor's office for possible misappropriation of public assets, money laundering and a breach of professional secrecy. The affair may even make it into the 2025 review...

Listen to the full report in Luxembourgish: 

Politskandaler 2024 / Reportage: Marc Hoscheid