Referendum in Luxembourg 2015

Posters of various parties for the referendum

Ballot

In a referendum on June 7, 2015 , the electorate of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg voted on three points to amend its constitution . The results are to be taken into account in a constitutional reform that is currently being prepared and which is to be confirmed in a further referendum in 2020 at the earliest.

The topics and the three questions of the referendum

To put it simply, the following points were discussed:

• Lowering the general voting age from 18 to 16 years
• Introduction of the right to vote for foreigners in the elections to the Luxembourg parliament for foreign nationals who have been resident in the country for ten years and who have previously participated in local or European elections
• The length of time a minister can continuously be a member of the government is limited to ten years.

Particularly controversial in the run-up to the referendum appeared the question of the right to vote for foreigners. Around 45% of the Luxembourg resident population are not citizens of the Grand Duchy and were therefore only allowed to vote in local elections at most. Luxembourg's liberal Prime Minister Xavier Bettel spoke out in favor of voting rights for foreigners among the above-mentioned. Premises.

The wording of the three questions put to the Luxembourg voters in the three official languages ​​of Luxembourg, Luxembourgish , German and French, on the voting day, were as follows:

1. "Are you in favor of the idea that Luxembourgers between the ages of sixteen and eighteen should have the right to optionally sign up on the electoral roll in order to vote in elections for the Chamber of Deputies, the European Parliament and the local council, and in referendums?"
2. “Advocate the idea that foreign citizens should be given the right to optionally register on the electoral roll in order to vote in the elections to the Chamber of Deputies, on the special double condition of having lived in Luxembourg for at least ten years and before that to have already participated in local or European elections in Luxembourg? "
3. "Do you support the idea of ​​limiting the length of time a person can be a member of government without interruption to a maximum of ten years?"

For each question, one of the two boxes marked with “Oui, Jo, Ja” or “Non, Nee, No” on the voting slip had to be ticked.

A fourth question originally intended, which was supposed to put the financing of salaries and pensions for clergy and lay helpers from the state budget , which had been envisaged in the constitution until then , became obsolete after Parliament deleted Article 106 from the constitution in January 2015.

In advance, the governing parties DP , Déi Gréng and LSAP as well as Déi Lénk had voted in favor of all three questions, the CSV and the ADR rejected all three projects.

campaign

The platform "Nee2015.lu" with its spokesperson, the geography teacher Fred Keup , emerged as the main figure in the rejection of the right to vote for foreigners . They always referred to themselves as the political center and were also perceived as such from the outside. Other actors who rejected the right to vote for foreigners were the ADR party and the CGFP state officials' union. The CSV admitted to a rather hesitant rejection only late.

On the other side stood the majority of the decisive forces from politics, business and culture (referred to in the campaign as the establishment): the government, 5 parties (DP, LSAP, the Greens, the Left, the Pirate Party), the journalists and the media (Tageblatt, Luxemburger Wort, Quotidien, Jeudi, Woxx, Revue ...), trade unions (OGBL, LCGB, Syprolux, FNCTTFEL), employers' associations, business, 50 people from the cultural scene.

In February 2015, 48% still supported the yes in a survey. Despite the consistent campaign for the right to vote for foreigners, the “No” was able to assert itself more and more clearly among the population.

Results

Result according to municipalities in the question of the right to vote for foreigners. The highest proportion of “yes” votes was found in the capital Luxembourg.

A total of 245,092 people were entitled to vote, of which 212,648 (86.8%) took part. 1,635 ballot papers (0.8%) were considered invalid. The results are shown below. All three questions were rejected by the voters with a clear majority.

The rejection was nationwide, ie in none of the 105 voting districts (municipalities) was there a majority in favor of the vote. The different number of valid votes for each question is explained by the fact that not all three questions were answered on each ballot paper.

First question:
lowering the voting age to 16 years

answer	be right	percent
Yes	040.183	019.13%
No	169.818	080.87%
Valid votes	210.001	100.00%

Second question: the right to
vote for foreigners

answer	be right	percent
Yes	046,031	021.98%
No	163,362	078.02%
Valid votes	209.393	100.00%

Third question:
limitation of mandates for ministers

answer	be right	percent
Yes	062,835	030.07%
No	146.096	069.93%
Valid votes	208.931	100.00%

literature

• Referendum . Forum , issue 349, March 2015 (German, French)

Web links

Commons : Referendum in Luxembourg 2015  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website of the Chamber of Deputies on the referendum (Luxembourgish)
• A referendum - three questions . Dossier of the daily newspaper
• Dossier on the referendum on the Luxembourg word

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Referendum: Luxembourgers vote on the right to vote for foreigners . Spiegel Online, June 7, 2015, accessed on the same day
2. ↑ Danielle Schumacher: Constitutional reform on the home straight. Luxemburger Wort , June 20, 2018, accessed October 14, 2018.
3. ↑ Will foreigners have the right to vote in Luxembourg? Die Welt, accessed June 7, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Referendum of June 7, 2015. (No longer available online.) Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, archived from the original on June 7, 2015 ; Retrieved June 7, 2015 . 
5. ↑ No referendum question on churches . Luxemburger Wort, January 21, 2015, accessed June 7, 2015
6. ↑ ^{a b} Raphaël Kies: Étendre le droit de vote des étrangers aux élections legislatives: Pourquoi les Luxembourgeois n'en veulent pas? 2019 ( uni.lu [accessed June 8, 2020]).
7. ↑ Fox, Frisoni, Schuster & Co: 50 guides from the Kulturzeen fir de Jo on the right to vote for foreigners. Retrieved June 8, 2020 (Luxembourgish). 
8. ↑ L'essentiel: L'économie dit "oui" au droit de vote des étrangers. Retrieved June 8, 2020 . 
9. ↑ Luxembourg voted. Luxemburger Wort, June 7, 2015, accessed June 7, 2015 .