At a press conference marking the parliamentary rentrée, the ADR's five MPs presented their main demands for the coming session. They want the right to use cash enshrined in the Constitution, more seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and stronger efforts to deport people with no legal right to remain in the country.
Some of these positions echo those of Germany's far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), but ADR leaders rejected any alignment with the party's controversial rhetoric, particularly any playing down of the Nazi era or the Holocaust. "We had a Second World War and the Germans invaded us. There is nothing to trivialise there", said parliamentary group leader Fred Keup. "On the contrary, we must always remember how terrible that time was."
Keup added that the ADR does not sit with the AfD in the European Parliament, but with the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). He said the ADR has more in common with the CSV than the CSV has with The Greens.
The press conference also touched on past controversies. ADR MP Tom Weidig rejected claims that a comment he made eight years ago, "at least the Nazis did not let Luxembourgers starve", trivialised Nazi crimes. He said it was taken out of context and came from a Facebook discussion about the French siege of the Luxembourg fortress in 1694.
Weidig said the ADR is the only Luxembourg party willing to "break taboos" on crime. "Everyone in the country" knows what lies behind the recent rise in crime and assaults, he said: "It is foreigners who are not in regular employment, are in the country illegally, or are in asylum procedures with no prospect of gaining asylum."
Despite that certainty, Weidig called for detailed statistics on the nationality and residence status of offenders to be published, saying they are needed to "understand and solve the problem". He accused Home Affairs Minister Léon Gloden of being "dishonest" for saying the data is not available.
The ADR also wants people without legal residence to be deported without delay, the detention centre to be expanded and a "comparution immédiate" procedure introduced. This is a fast-track court process used for repeat offenders.
On financial policy, the ADR, like the AfD, wants the right to use cash protected by the Constitution. MP Dan Hardy pointed to the December 2023 LuxTrust outage, which left digital payments unavailable for 24 hours. The ADR is not against digital payments, he said, but only the law, not executive decisions, should be able to limit the use of cash.
The party does not want to change the current €10,000 cash threshold, which Hardy said is "always said to be related, indirectly, to black money".
The ADR also wants more MPs, citing the underrepresentation of the East constituency and an imbalance between government and opposition. Keup noted that the largest opposition party, the LSAP, has 13 MPs, fewer than the government has ministers (15). He also called for more support staff for MPs and for better opposition representation on municipal councils.
On social policy, MP Alexandra Schoos called for greater efficiency in the social security administrations, which she said are under financial pressure. Higher contributions should be a last resort, she said. Fellow MP Michel Lemaire said more must be done to support generational change in farming and to review rules so farmers can work more productively.
