Robert Mehlen, former president of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), announced during a Radio 100,7 interview on Tuesday that he will likely leave the party. The veteran politician confirmed he has already cancelled his membership fee payments.
Mehlen cited growing disillusionment with the ADR’s current direction, particularly criticising MEP Fernand Kartheiser’s positions on the Ukraine war. He expressed his disappointment that none of the current party members dare to speak out against Kartheiser.
The former party leader also accused the ADR of abandoning its advocacy for private sector workers, noting its silence on recent civil servant pay raises.
His comments come just days after current ADR President Alexandra Schoos publicly praised Mehlen’s historic contributions to Luxembourg’s pension reform debates in the 1980s.
Mehlen was instrumental in the “Action Committee 5/6 Pension for Everybody,"* which later evolved into the ADR. After helping the action committee secure four parliamentary seats in 1989, he served as an MP for two decades until 2009.
*Editor’s Note: The committee’s name referenced its campaign to extend Luxembourg’s former civil servant pension scheme (5/6 of final salary) to all workers. The five-sixths pension scheme for civil servants was abolished with the 1999 reform.
