Following Prime Minister Luc Frieden’s State of the Nation address, opposition parties have largely argued that he failed to sufficiently address people’s everyday realities.
Throughout Wednesday, the various parties in the Chamber of Deputies are responding to the address, which Frieden delivered on Tuesday. While the Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) and the Democratic Party (DP) offered praise, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP), the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR), and the Green Party (Déi Gréng) did not hold back in their criticism.
Laurent Zeimet, head of the CSV parliamentary group, acknowledged that the current situation is difficult but argued it is not as dire as some opposition members claim. Echoing Frieden, Zeimet listed several measures the government has implemented over the past 2.5 years. At the same time, he rejected opposition demands for measures aimed at improving work-life balance, calling them “unrealistic” given the economic climate.
Gilles Baum, head of the DP parliamentary group, noted that due to high costs for housing, energy, and everyday goods, many households “have the impression” they are worse off than a few years ago. For that reason, Baum said it was important to provide relief ahead of the upcoming tripartite talks and to draft a poverty reduction plan.
LSAP parliamentary group leader Taina Bofferding regretted that the prime minister’s speech conveyed little genuine will for major societal redistribution. She argued that now is not the time for band-aid solutions. Instead, the current crisis should be used to tackle inequality and injustice.
According to Bofferding, the main focus should be on housing. “We need to stop fighting superficial symptoms and tackle the problem structurally, and that requires courage", she stressed. In her view, courage means “taking the red carpet away from the speculators” and ensuring that real estate tax is finally implemented alongside property tax and a vacancy tax, rather than being further diluted.
To enable faster and cheaper construction, Bofferding advocated for serial construction and called for a national rent commission to guarantee transparent, fair, and stable rents.
Fred Keup, president of the ADR parliamentary group, primarily criticised that the prime minister’s address ignored the lived realities of a segment of the population and lacked a vision for Luxembourg 20 years from now. Keup identified population growth as the country’s biggest problem, blaming it for “overdevelopment, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, loss of culture, destruction of nature, lack of infrastructure, staff shortages in the civil service, poverty, and a pension problem that keeps being pushed back and growing larger.”
The ADR also contends that the integration of newly arriving residents is deteriorating. To strengthen social cohesion, the right-wing party is calling for a greater emphasis on the role of the Luxembourgish language, particularly in schools. For this reason, Fred Keup also criticised the introduction of French literacy classes as the wrong approach.
Sam Tanson, speaking for the Green Party parliamentary faction, argued that many people have struggled to cope with recent and ongoing crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and climate change. She therefore considers the outcome of the upcoming tripartite talks to be especially important. Tanson highlighted the situation on the labour market as a particular concern. She noted that Luxembourg’s unemployment rate currently stands at 6.3% and has been steadily rising since 2023. Even more worrying, in her view, is youth unemployment, which sits at 20% in Luxembourg – above the EU average.
Especially with regard to young people, Tanson argued that the government is failing to provide answers to existing problems, including in the areas of education, career guidance, and incentivising businesses to offer jobs to young people.
MP Sven Clement of the Pirate Party objected that the Prime Minister had not focused enough on the middle class. The middle class, he argued, is too often overlooked in political debate, and more targeted tax benefits are precisely what is needed for this group. Additionally, Clement said, housing was not clearly identified as a crisis, and concrete measures were lacking. He also pointed to a lack of transparency in budgetary policy, arguing that the high level of debt would punish future generations.
MP David Wagner of the Left Party (Déi Lénk) described the speech as lacking major surprises. He also criticised the absence of concrete statements on housing and taxes. Wagner argued that capital would need to be taxed more consistently because otherwise, financing the measures would not be sustainable. The principle that lower taxes on capital benefit all of society has never worked, the Left Party MP added. Wagner also argued that a structural increase in the minimum wage, as demanded by the trade unions, would benefit the economy.
Finally, Prime Minister Luc Frieden was given the floor once more. He stated that he had deliberately not delivered a budget speech, as that falls within the remit of the Finance Minister. Nevertheless, he said, the direction was clear. "We need healthy state finances, because this government does not want to raise taxes," the Prime Minister said. He argued that his government had taken office "to deliver more net pay from gross pay." This goal must be implemented consistently, Frieden said, which is why the government has already adjusted tax brackets to inflation several times and wants to carry out a tax reform.
The LSAP and the Green Party had tabled a total of five motions, including one to establish a crisis task force for housing and another to make tax relief less broadly targeted. All of the motions were rejected.
