The Green Party (Déi Gréng) gathered for its party congress on Saturday at the Aal Seeërei venue in Diekirch, with over 160 members in attendance to debate a packed political agenda spanning Iran, housing, taxes, and climate policy.
As expected, the party used the platform to voice sharp criticism of the current government, marking its position as an opposition force now finding its footing after a difficult electoral setback.
“We are here to stay, even when the wind blows rough,” said MEP Tilly Metz, a sentiment that appeared to capture the party’s renewed morale. The mood has steadied since autumn 2023, when the Greens narrowly avoided being voted out of the Chamber of Deputies entirely.
Turning to global affairs, party leaders expressed concern over the international situation and called for a firmer stance from Luxembourg’s government. Co-president Stéphanie Empain urged the government to clearly stand behind international rules and argued that Europe must accelerate its energy independence – a point she suggested even remaining sceptics now recognise as urgent.
Empain also took aim at CSV Home Affairs Minister Léon Gloden over recent remarks he made to RTL, in which he questioned why Ukrainian men were leaving their country instead of fighting. “What he said there was not just insensitive; it was, whether calculated or not, a misrepresentation of the facts,” Empain said. She added a pointed jab: “And that’s coming from someone who apparently feels so insecure in Grevenmacher that he has practically started to have the local police patrol his own doorstep.”
Co-president François Benoy delivered sharp criticism of Luxembourg’s treatment of refugees, saying he was “ashamed” of conditions in reception facilities, which he described as unacceptable. He accused the government of prioritising the economy above all else while neglecting the vulnerable, referring to the it as a “government of cold hearts.” He noted that despite the focus on economic growth, the economy remained stagnant.
Sam Tanson, president of the parliamentary group, stressed that climate policy should not be dismissed as a “lifestyle problem.” The party used the congress to outline a series of social and fiscal demands, including increases to the minimum wage and basic pension. Party officials also criticised what they described as excessive tax relief for top earners, arguing the balance had tipped too far.
On housing, Tanson called for concrete progress on several fronts: a cap on rents, taxation of vacant plots and empty dwellings, and a stronger commitment to public housing. She closed her speech with a vision of what the Greens stand for:
“In a country where housing becomes affordable, in a country that invests massively in renewable energies, in a country that excludes no one, in a country where security and human rights go hand in hand, in a country that stands up for its values.”
The party also adopted new statutes aimed at strengthening its internal structures and increasing its visibility at the local level.
