Like many southern towns, Differdange used to be firmly in the hands of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP). However, after the socialists reigned for 38 years, they were eventually forced to accept the Democratic Party (DP) as a coalition partner in 1999. A change in power finally came in 2005 when the DP’s Claude Meisch took over as mayor along with the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) and the Greens in the aftermath of a controversial audit at the Niederkorn hospital.
The DP stayed on top of things until 2014 when Claude Meisch was appointed Education Minister in the new Bettel administration. Although the DP intended to replace Meisch with John Hoffman, the Greens, the LSAP, and the CSV banded together as they did not accept the politician who only gathered the seventh most votes on the DP list.
Led by Roberto Traversini, the Greens came out on top of the local elections in 2017 with 36% of the votes and seven seats on the municipal council. At the time, the CSV won 20% and four seats, the LSAP 19% and four seats, and the DP 12% and two seats.
But, that was not the end of the power struggles in Differdange. In autumn 2019, then-Mayor and MP Traversini stepped down following the construction of a private garden shed in a nature protection area without proper authorisation. The same affair eventually also forced party colleague Carole Dieschbourg to resign as Environment Minister.
Christiane Brassel-Rausch then took on the top job in Differdange, but as the politician will not run for reelection on Sunday, the office of Differdange mayor is once again expected to be highly contested.
