Despite meagre results in the recent municipal elections, Sehovic argued that the Greens are working towards the parliamentary elections and beyond with a positive mindset. He explained that we live in a time of great uncertainty, which makes it particularly difficult for an environmental party to convince voters.
Nevertheless, Sehovic believes that the Greens have built a sustainable model for climate protection in Luxembourg, focusing on the involvement of people and businesses rather than issuing bans. The co-party president will head the Greens’ southern constituency list in the parliamentary elections alongside Joëlle Welfring, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development.
Read also: ‘We can win the election’, says Sam TansonThe Greens’ ambition for the housing sector is that the government increase its share of affordable rental units from 2 to 20% of the market share. The party believes that this is the only way for the government to actually influence the wider market with targeted measures.
As for tax policies, Sehovic argued that it is not possible to simply lower taxes as proposed and done by the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV), noting that this strategy brought the country in jeopardy when the CSV was in charge ten years ago. When the coalition between the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP), and the Greens took over in 2013, they were forced to close several loopholes, said Sehovic.
The Greens thus propose to simplify the system by abolishing the current three tax categories and merging them into one progressive class. This way, low and medium incomes of up to three times the minimum wage should be relieved. Furthermore, they want to introduce a VAT reduction on organic food.
Simultaneously, the Greens believe that a wealth tax is the right path forward to make up for potential losses in tax revenue.
When it comes to employment hours, Sehovic explained that the Greens want to introduce a family policy to allow parents of young children to work less. Similarly, the party intends to make parental leave and leave for family reasons more flexible.
