Friday’s press event for the Alternative Democratic Reform Party’s (ADR) parliamentary review was quite animated, with the overarching theme being their criticism of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and The Greens for having been in the government quite a long time, doing a poor job of it, and having “the nerve” to complain about everything now.
The press lunch took place at the Tennis restaurant in Schifflange, where the conservative party directed most of the barbs in their parliamentary review towards the left-wing bloc, leaving the current CSV-DP government mostly unscathed.
The ADR said it has noticed that LSAP, The Greens, The Left, and the Pirates “always have the same positions.”
“That left bloc is basically very homogeneous and often shares the same opinion”, said party president Fred Keup. In his view, there’s hardly any difference between the four parties, and one could ask whether they might be better off forming a “unified party” for the next elections.
In contrast, the ADR sees itself as independent, often standing alone in Parliament, which is “difficult”, Keup admitted. But not among the general public, he insisted.
Be it the party’s critical and conservative stance on French-language literacy, restrictive Covid measures, abortion law changes, CO2 reduction policies, migration, or freedom of speech: “Even if in Parliament it’s often 5 against 55, we know that on many topics, we represent significantly more people out there. For example 50% or more.”
Is that assertion based on a survey? “No, that’s just the impression we get when we talk to people,” said Keup. He added that there’s always a “trend” visible “when a topic comes up,” including “on Facebook.”
It’s not just the work of the last two DP-LSAP-Green governments that left a bad taste for the ADR. The party was also critical of the reactions to a Facebook “like” by ADR MP Tom Weidig on a post stating that LGBTQ should be “destroyed.”
Fred Keup said the issue wasn’t the “like” itself, but the “panic” that followed, “as if World War III were about to break out.”
MP Tom Weidig reiterated that he did not intend to target people but rather the movement or ideology. He also stated that he has many lesbian and gay friends who tell him they do not feel part of that community.
The ADR doesn’t seem to have much against Prime Minister Luc Frieden. On Friday, there were hardly any jabs – just a remark that people will have to see how the PM manages the fact that not everyone in his coalition, or even in his own party, is aligned with him.
But during lunch, Fred Keup shared a quip that is supposedly circulating in Parliament:
“Someone tells Frieden: ‘Five people are voting against your bill.’ And Frieden replies: ‘No problem – I’ve got the ADR’s votes.’”
An earlier version of this article stated that a Facebook post “liked” by ADR MP Tom Weidig indicated that LGBTQ “people” should be “exterminated”. This was a factual error, and the original post did not include the word “people” and referred only to LGBTQ as a category. The word “exterminated” was also changed, to a less inflammatory translation of the word “vernicht”, to “destroyed.”
RTL Today apologise for the error and any confusion caused, and remains committed to ensuring accuracy and reliability in our reporting at all times.
