Former State Intelligence Service (SRE) agent André Kemmer has returned to work with the Luxembourg Police in an administrative capacity after Minister for Home Affairs Léon Gloden lifted his suspension. Kemmer confirmed his reinstatement to RTL on Tuesday.
Kemmer remains one of several defendants alongside former SREL director Marco Mille and operations director Frank Schneider in the ongoing SREL affair case, with an appeal trial set to begin on 4 February 2026. The 2020 first-instance ruling had acquitted Kemmer. Speaking to RTL, Kemmer stated that he will be relieved when the case is finally closed.
In a separate development, Kemmer announced his departure from the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), citing recent actions by MP Tom Weidig as the primary reason.
The scandal originated in 2012 when RTL exposed that Kemmer, then seconded from police to SREL, had participated in secretly recording then-Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker using a modified watch. Subsequent investigations revealed systemic intelligence service failures.
The political fallout proved significant: the revelations led Prime Minister Juncker to call snap elections in July 2013 after losing support from his coalition partner, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP). The subsequent election resulted in a new government formation comprising the Democratic Party (DP), LSAP, and the Green Party (Déi Gréng), while excluding Juncker’s Christian Social People’s Party (CSV).
As part of the reforms following the scandal, the Luxembourg State Intelligence Service (SREL) was reorganised and renamed as the State Intelligence Service (SRE).
