2009 Luxembourg general election

2009 Luxembourg general election

7 June 2009

All 60 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 31 seats were needed for a majority

Party Leader Vote % Seats +/– CSV Jean-Claude Juncker 37.34 26 +2 LSAP Jean Asselborn 23.00 13 −1 DP Claude Meisch 14.31 9 −1 Greens François Bausch 11.48 7 0 ADR Robert Mehlen 7.69 4 −1 The Left Collective leadership 3.61 1 +1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Prime Minister before Prime Minister after Jean-Claude Juncker CSV Jean-Claude Juncker CSV

General elections were held in Luxembourg on 7 June 2009, together with the 2009 election to the European Parliament. All sixty members of the Chamber of Deputies were elected for five years. The polls were topped by the Christian Social People's Party, which built upon its already high number of seats to achieve a commanding victory, with the highest vote share and number of seats of any party since 1954. Incumbent prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who was the longest-serving head of government in the European Union, renewed the coalition agreement with Deputy Prime Minister and Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party leader Jean Asselborn and formed the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry II, which was sworn in on 23 July 2009.

Parties

Seven parties ran candidates in all four circonscriptions, of which, five were already represented in the Chamber of Deputies: the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), the Democratic Party (DP), the Greens, and the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR). Two parties that were not then represented also ran: The Left^[1] and the Communist Party (KPL). In addition, the Citizens' List, which was headed by current independent deputy Aly Jaerling, ran in two constituencies.

List #	Party		Running in				Seats
			Centre	Est	Nord	Sud	2004	Pre-election
1		Communist Party (KPL)					0	0
2		Greens					7	7
3		Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR)					5	4[2]
4		Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP)					14	14
5		Democratic Party (DP)					10	10
6		The Left					0	0
7		Christian Social People's Party (CSV)					24	24
8		Citizens' List					0	1[2]

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Christian Social People's Party	1,129,368	37.34	26	+2
	Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party	695,830	23.00	13	–1
	Democratic Party	432,820	14.31	9	–1
	The Greens	347,388	11.48	7	0
	Alternative Democratic Reform Party	232,744	7.69	4	–1
	The Left	109,184	3.61	1	+1
	Communist Party of Luxembourg	49,108	1.62	0	0
	Citizens' List	28,512	0.94	0	New
Total		3,024,954	100.00	60	0
Valid votes		190,213	93.45
Invalid/blank votes		13,322	6.55
Total votes		203,535	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		223,842	90.93
Source: Nohlen & Stöver[3]

By locality

The CSV won a landslide victory, winning pluralities in 112 of Luxembourg's 116 communes, with the LSAP winning pluralities in four.

As in 2004, the CSV won pluralities in each of Luxembourg's four circonscriptions, and pluralities in nearly all of Luxembourg's communes. Only four communes didn't register pluralities for the CSV (down from seven in 2004). Wiltz in the north and Dudelange, Kayl, and Rumelange in the southern Red Lands voted for the LSAP.

The CSV's performance improved most markedly in Centre, where it increased its vote from 35.5% to 38.6%. In Centre, the CSV received almost twice as many votes as the Democratic Party in, only ten years after the DP won a plurality by over 2%. It gained one extra seat in Centre, and another in Est.

	CSV	LSAP	DP	Greens	ADR	Left	KPL	BL
Centre	38.6%	17.8%	19.4%	13.2%	6.3%	3.5%	1.1%	0.0%
Est	41.5%	16.2%	15.4%	14.2%	9.5%	2.3%	1.0%	0.0%
Nord	39.6%	17.4%	18.2%	10.8%	10.3%	2.0%	1.0%	0.8%
Sud	35.6%	28.2%	10.1%	10.2%	7.9%	4.1%	2.2%	1.7%

Aftermath

The CSV's large margin of victory guaranteed that it would form the government once again, with Jean-Claude Juncker appointed as formateur and likely to remain as Prime Minister. Before the election, Juncker, Europe's longest-serving head of government, had told his party that he intended to step down as Minister for Finances, to be replaced by Luc Frieden.^[4] This brought into question his chairmanship of the Europe-wide Eurogroup, which he had chaired since 2005. However, he has since stated that he would remain in charge of monetary policy and relations with the European Central Bank.^[5]

The CSV was in a strong enough position to form a coalition with any one of three parties: LSAP (partner in the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry I), the DP (partner in the Juncker-Polfer Ministry), and the Greens (who had never previously entered the government). However, the DP and Greens had both ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the CSV, leaving only the previous coalition partners, LSAP, in the running.^[6] The CSV and LSAP formed a coalition agreement, with Juncker as Prime Minister and Jean Asselborn as Deputy Prime Minister, with the new government forming on 23 July.

References

1. The Left is technically not a party, but an electoral alliance.
2. Aly Jaerling was elected as a member of the Alternative Democratic Reform Party in 2004, but now sits as an independent and is running for Citizens' List.
3. Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p2051 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
4. "Juncker précise qu'il ne souhaite pas quitter la présidence de l'Eurogroupe" (in French). Le Monde. 4 June 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2009.
5. "ECOFIN: EU's Juncker Wants To Remain Head of Eurogroup". The Wall Street Journal. 8 June 2009. Retrieved June 10, 2009. ^{[dead link‍]}
6. Glesener, Marc (9 June 2009). "DP und Déi Gréng sagen Nein" (in German). Luxemburger Wort. Archived from the original on 12 June 2009. Retrieved June 13, 2009.