Taina Bofferding: 'We would have continued negotiations'

The government has broken with the social model and trampled on the framework that has always led us through crises, Taina Bofferding told RTL on Friday morning. She was speaking after this week's negotiations between the government, employers, and trade unions ended without an agreement on Wednesday.

As far as the LSAP MP is concerned, the government is making excuses by saying the employer representatives and trade unions' positions are too far apart to make a deal. Bofferding's party believes the Grand Duchy's civil harmony is still at stake, amid the threat of social conflicts and strikes.

Frieden walked away from union talks too soon

Bofferding said it should have been up to Prime Minister Luc Frieden to ensure the unions and employers come to an agreement. She said he needed to be a prime minister who connects the people and their country, instead of a CEO, as the unions were prepared to continue negotiating. If the LSAP had been in charge, they would not have broken off discussions and left the negotiating table at 4pm on Wednesday, she added.

Bofferding described the most recent meeting with the unions as an "alibi event", as there were no further negotiations. The government was said to have laid out all options on the table at 10am on Wednesday, before presenting them to the public at that afternoon's press briefing. The LSAP leader said this was no way to make progress. As long as the government continues to view the social negotiations as a formality, there would be no way to move forward on the country's most pressing issues.

Government holding out on pension reform until the next elections

At the press conference following Wednesday's talks, deputy prime minister Xavier Bettel suddenly argued that the government had no mandate from the electorate to carry out pension reforms, as this had not been a topic in the last election campaign. Bofferding referred to this as "surreal", as people had been consulted for months, the whole country waiting for reforms, only for this to be ignored.

She said she believes the government intends to delay pension reform until the next election so they can hand off responsibility to the next government – a plan she called "irresponsible politics". The LSAP would prefer the pension system be secured in the long term, without pitting generations against each other. This could have been feasible, argued Bofferding, although she added that it would have been better for the government to U-turn on pensions.

Reduced pension payouts is out of the question for the LSAP. They propose using the surplus from the compensation fund to pay out for pensions, and other sources of financing. Administrative costs could be outsourced directly from the pension fund, according to general consensus.

Bofferding also said the planned timing to implement changes interesting, as she suspected legal texts had been drafted over the summer, so the government is perhaps more ready than it is willing to reveal.

Opposition is a 'learning process'

Responding to criticism in the Tageblatt over her leadership and the LSAP’s weak performance in opposition, Bofferding admitted she didn’t feel great about the article but noted that no one had raised the concerns with her directly. She said she would prefer colleagues to approach her openly and described working in opposition as a learning process, with many in the party unused to life outside government. Even so, she insisted she was satisfied with the LSAP’s parliamentary work to date.

Full interview available in Luxembourgish: