© Anne Wolff
Fernand Etgen, former Chamber president and long-serving member of the Democratic Party (DP), announced in conversation with RTL on Tuesday that he will retire from politics at the end of 2025 after nearly 50 years in public life.
Etgen confirmed that Marc Hansen, a former minister who narrowly missed a seat in the 2023 elections, will take his place in the Chamber once he steps down.
The Ettelbruck native, who joined the DP in 1977, first entered the Chamber of Deputies in 2007 and went on to serve as Minister for Agriculture, Viticulture, and Consumer Protection in the 2013–2018 coalition government. Between 2018 and 2023, he held the post of President of the Chamber of Deputies.
Before entering national politics, Etgen served for 18 years as mayor of Feulen and was a member of the local council from 1981 to 1988. In Parliament, he recently acted as the reporting MP for legislation on the expansion of the Clervaux secondary school and the construction of new laboratories for the Administration of Technical Agricultural Services (ASTA) in Gilsdorf.
Asked about recent internal tensions within the DP following MP Gérard Schockmel's controversial opinion piece criticising feminism and abortion rights, Etgen clarified that Schockmel had expressed his personal views, not those of the party. He reiterated that the DP remains firmly committed to human rights, gender equality, and liberal values such as freedom and tolerance, stressing that the DP "has always been a party of strong women".
Etgen also spoke about reforming the parliamentary system, noting that discussions are ongoing regarding full-time MPs, attendance rules, and the political leave imbalance between public- and private-sector deputies. He argued that the Chamber should remain diverse and accessible to people from all professional backgrounds but recognised the growing workload may make a full-time deputy status necessary in the long term.
Regarding the recent proposal by the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) to increase the number of MPs, Etgen indicated that the Chamber had reached its physical limit, which according to him only allows a maximum of 60 MPs.
The veteran politician, affectionately known as "the Tiger", a nickname he earned as a mischievous student, laughed when recalling the story of its origin, admitting that the name has stuck with him ever since.
