"Europe must not make itself smaller than it is"

Marc Angel has already experienced a lot in his political career. The LSAP politician was a member of the capital's municipal council for 26 years, sat in the Chamber for 15 years and has been an MEP since 2019, which he says he particularly enjoys. The last time we spoke to Angel was before the 2024 European elections, in which he came third among all candidates nationwide with almost 70,000 votes.

Lëtzebuerger Journal: Hand on heart: wouldn't you have preferred to stay in Luxembourg at the time, where you received more votes than Franz Fayot in the 2018 parliamentary elections, but the latter later moved into the government following Etienne Schneider's political withdrawal? In fact, you should have become a minister instead of Fayot. in 2019, you stood as a candidate on your party's European list and were elected to the European Parliament a few months later when Nicolas Schmit became an EU Commissioner.

Marc Angel: I could have actually become a minister, but I turned it down because I had always wanted to be an MEP. I was offered the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Cooperation, and I would have loved to take on the latter. However, I wanted to go to Brussels to get away from Luxembourg and I have never regretted it. I had already been a member of the Foreign and European Policy Commission in the Chamber of Deputies since 2004, so I was also present at many interparliamentary meetings in Brussels. When I saw the MEPs' letterboxes there once again, I swore to myself that my name would also appear here one day.

So there was no bad blood with you for not joining the government?

Absolutely not. It was my own decision. I simply wanted to take on a new challenge.