There are sixty seats available in the Chamber of Deputies, 30 of which are required for a government majority. During the 2018 elections, the DP won 12 seats, forming a coalition government with the LSAP (10 seats) and The Greens (9). In total, the government has a marginal majority of just one seat.
If elections were to be held today, the government coalition would grow by one seat: the DP would gain one seat, LSAP would gain one seat, and The Greens would lose a seat. This would leave the coalition government with 32 seats, one more than in 2018. The main opposition party, CSV, would drop from 21 seats to 17. Additional gains are seen with The Pirates (+2) and The Left (+1). The ADR would maintain its four seats.
This is a major win for The Pirates, whose party leader Sven Clement is now among the top 10 most popular politicians in Luxembourg. The Greens would have missed out on two current spots, a big flop given that the greatest expectations of voters (namely housing, mobility, environment and energy) are handled by ministers from their own ranks.
Both the LSAP and DP are profiting off the crisis, with Prime Minister Xavier Bettel (DP) and Minister of Health Paulette Lenert (LSAP) arguably being the two most important leaders and visible figures during the pandemic.
But matters looked different prior to the crisis in November 2019, when the coalition government only acquired 30 seats in surveys - a draw. The government was strongest according to polls in November 2020 (DP: 14 seats, LSAP: 12 seats, The Greens: 8 seats), with a total of 34.
How satisfied, then, are voters by the work of the government, opposition or individual parties? The government is doing a good job according to the survey, reaching 1.4 points on the scale of -5 to 5, with -5 being “very bad” and 5 representing “very good”. Both DP and LSAP are scoring positive results, but The Greens, despite being part of the coalition, scored -0.2 on the scale. Worst off is the ADR, which voters perceive as doing a poor job.
Read survey part 1: Luxembourgers most worried about housing and traffic amid Covid, survey shows
Read survey part 2: 70% of voters satisfied with government’s work halfway through legislative period
Read survey part 3: Paulette Lenert most liked, Sven Clement the “new star": classification of Luxembourg’s politicians
