Between sash and tears

By Pascal SteinwachsGilles KayserLex Kleren Switch to German for original article

Politics is sometimes like real life: There are partnerships of convenience and partnerships of reason, intrigues and withdrawal of love. What is decisive, however, and we are quoting former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl here, is what comes out at the end. Our analysis of 11 June and the who-with-whom.

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It is a truism that joy and disappointment are often close together, but here it fits like a glove. By this we mean, for example, the election evening in Esch/Alzette.

Esch: "A second round with the Boys Club"

When, after an hour-long neck-and-neck race with the CSV, the LSAP there realises that it has won the election thriller by a very narrow margin (in the end, the socialists get just 36 votes more than the Christian-social mayor's party), the joy among the comrades is so great, that LSAP shooting star Liz Braz, letting out a loud scream, pounces on her top candidate Steve Faltz – assuming that the LSAP, as the party with the most votes, would also be entitled to lay claim to the mayor's post and start coalition talks in this sense.

Disillusionment, however, follows on its heels when shortly afterwards, with a grouchy looking CSV mayor Georges Mischo, an already badly weakened DP alderman Pim Knaff and a visibly uncomfortable Green co-leading candidate Meris Sehovic, three tired men step in front of the camera to nonchalantly announce that they want to continue their coalition for the next six years.

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