Editorial - Larochette, the reverse side of the postcard

Since 2022, we at Lëtzebuerger Journal have been offering you the Gemengepodcast, a podcast that aims to paint a portrait of each of the Grand Duchy's 100 communes. The first season, in the spring of 2022, focused on political issues in the context of the forthcoming local elections. The second, in the summer of 2023, focused on the tourist municipalities. For my part, I went to discover Vianden, a town that is more than just its hilltop castle. I met shopkeepers, artists, elected representatives and interesting, passionate residents.

It was a good experience, and one that convinced me to embark on a new episode of the Gemengepodcast, this time in Larochette, focusing on towns that are particularly open to the outside world in the run-up to the European elections. Why Larochette? Because it has the largest foreign community – Portuguese in this case – in the country. A municipality often held up as a model of successful integration, of harmonious mixing between Luxembourgers and non-Luxembourgers. In 2017, it even elected a mayor whose parents had moved to the Grand Duchy from Cape Verde.