In Luxembourg there are three major parties, the center-right Christian Social People’s Party (CSV), the left-of-center Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) and the liberal Democratic Party (DP). Among the other existing parties, the most notable are the environmentalist Greens and the conservative Alternative Democratic Reform Party.
Partly due to the electoral system, since the end of World War II, no single party has won an absolute majority in the legislature, meaning that Luxembourg had a series of coalition governments. However, the dominant party has been the Christian Democratic CSV, which has presided in all but one of the country’s post-war cabinets and has won the largest number of seats in every election.
Christian Social People’s Party
Leader: Michel Wolter
The Christian Social People’s Party (CSV), the largest party in Luxewmbourg, has a Christian-democratic ideology. The leading figure of the party is the former Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker. Every Prime Minister of Luxembourg since the end of the World War II has been a member of the CSV, with only two exceptions. The party is a member of the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Centrist Democrat international.
Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP)
Leader: Alex Bodry
The social democratic party was founded in 1902 and currently is the second biggest party in Luxembourg. Since December 2013 the party participates in a coalition Government with the Democratic Party and the Greens.
The party represents the interests of the working class and traditionally attracted workers, mainly from the industrial south of the country. It is the second largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, having won 20.3% and 13 out of 60 seats at the 2013 election. The party is a member of the Socialist International and the Party of European Socialists.
Democratic Party
Leader: Xavier Bettel
The Party was founded in 1955 and is led by Xavier Bettel, who has been the Prime Minister of Luxembourg since 2013, leading a coalition with the Socialists and the Greens.
Concerning its political ideology, the DP sits on the centre-right, expressing moderate liberal views combined with a strong emphasis on civil liberties, human rights and internationalism. The DP is a strong supporter of private property rights, free trade and the free market and strongly supports European integration. In the 2013 election they got 18.3% of the votes and elected 13 MPs.
The Greens
Leader: Christian Kmiotek
The Green Party was formed in the late 1970s, when Green parties in Europe started developing and achieving some electoral success. The Greens advocate environmentalism, social justice and grassroots democracy and they are opposed to nuclear power and the buildup of persistent organic pollutants. In the 2013 election they got 10% of the votes and elected 6 MPs.
Alternative Democratic Reform Party
Leader: Jean Schoos
The Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) was founded in 1987 and in its first election in 1988 won four seats, establishing as a political force.
The party was founded as a single-issue party, to introduce equality between private and public sector pensions. During the years, the party diversified its programme to cover all aspects of public policy. The ADR is socially conservative and supports economic liberalism. At the same time it is considered to be Eurosceptic. Thus, in heavily pro-European Luxembourg, the ADR has always fared worse in European elections than on national elections. In the 2013 election they got 6.6% of the votes and elected 3 MPs.
The Left
Leader: Serge Urbany
The Left is a socialist political party formed in 1999 as an alliance of the Communist Party of Luxembourg, the New Left and the Revolutionary Socialist Party. The Communist Party left the Coalition in 2004.
In the 2013 elections, the Left won 4.9% of the votes and elected two MPs. The Left is associated with the European United Left-Nordic green left European political group.
Metapolls.net
Sources:
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_Luxembourg
-http://www.electionresources.org/lu/
-http://www.nsd.uib.no/european_election_database/country/luxembourg/parties.html
