Last week, Robert Mehlen hinted at a potential exit from the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) – which he helped found and of which he is still an honorary president – after attending the party’s national congress. The surprise announcement prompted RTL to seek out the 75-year-old, who was willing to delve into the reasons behind his desire to leave the ADR behind once and for all.
Mehlen is a thoroughbred politician who was involved with the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) until 1986 and, following a short pause, became a member of the ADR predecessor, namely the Action Committee ‘5/6 Pension for All’, in 1988. The party emerged from a social movement which sought to adapt – insofar as possible – private sector pensions to the level of public sector pensions.
Speaking to RTL, Mehlen reminisced about how trade unions were the first to mobilise people with this goal, stating that he was president of the Free Luxembourgish Farmers Association (FLB) in collaboration with the Wine-Makers Association and the Syndicate of Self-Employed Workers and Middle Classes (SIC), which led him to the incipient social movement.
As the movement gained traction, the group decided to participate in the 1989 national elections under the name of the Action Committee for Democracy and Pension Justice, winning over 7% of votes – a surprise for Mehlen, who was on the Eastern voting district. He subsequently remained in the Chamber as an MP until 2009.
However, times have changed – and the ADR with them. Mehlen states that the party no longer has pensions as its main talking point, although the topic’s relevance is as pressing as ever, criticising the continued divide between the private sector and the public sector on how to make pensions sustainable without permanent growth.
Another point of criticism is that there is still an enormous difference between the mechanisms that guarantee public sector pensions and private sector pensions, according to Mehlen.
The shift in the ADR foreign policy stance towards appeasement with Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine, exemplified by MEP Fernand Kartheiser’s repeated calls for Europe to follow the US approach, is a direction that Mehlen cannot fundamentally agree with. He stated, with a certain degree of outrage, that the chosen discourse questions the achievements of the past 200 years.
As the invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the territorial integrity of a recognised state, noted Mehlen, this should have been respected by Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union like they agreed to do.
Mehlen also questions the idea of negotiations with Russia, casting doubt on the trustworthiness of Putin and pointing to the hybrid warfare that Russia is pursuing all around the world, including the US. Mehlen believes that Trump would not have been elected on his first term if Russia had not had such massive influence in the elections.
In that regard, he also openly criticised Kartheiser’s view, which asserts that the war in Ukraine is a “proxy war” rather than a war of aggression, calling Kartheiser’s position “total nonsense”.
Furthermore, Mehlen clearly distances himself from the current shift to the right in many countries and in the European Union, criticising the spread of fake news. He points here to Russia, and to the role of social media in our society in general, referring critically to his own party as well.
An additional point of fundamental disagreement between Mehlen and the ADR party line is climate change and how to deal with it. Mehlen criticises the party’s opposition to the prohibition of car combustion engines, underscoring his position in favour of regulating the economy and his view that combustion engines are becoming obsolete.
These fundamental disagreements have led him to question his membership in the ADR, stating that the party has become too ideological. Despite these divergences, Mehlen has not yet determined whether he will definitely leave the party after 36 years of membership.
His indecision also stems from a personal disagreement with the current ADR president, Alexandra Schoos, and her father, Jean Schoos, who succeeded Mehlen as ADR president until 2022. Schoos and Mehlen had a meeting last Thursday where this was addressed.
In sum, Mehlen concluded that if the party goes further in the direction of Kartheiser’s views, then he will need to make a definitive decision. He finally stated that if he were twenty years younger, he would have founded a different party.
