"Europe stands for freedom"

Our three interviewees are fully motivated. So fully motivated, in fact, that during the photo session we hold before the interview, they are not even deterred by the incessant rain, which is particularly heavy on the day of our interview.

For the DP, Sunday is also primarily about regaining its second seat in the European Parliament, which it lost during the last legislative period when Monica Semedo left the party. The latter, who is running this time as Fokus's co-leading candidate, was able to collect more than 50,000 votes in the 2019 European elections before leaving the DP in a dispute at the beginning of 2021 and has been a non-party member of the Renew Europe Group ever since. In the last European elections, the DP even had more votes than the CSV, which meant that the CSV lost its third seat and had to cede it to the DP.

Charles Goerens (72), who has already spent a total of 22 years in the European Parliament during his political career and is once again the DP's driving force in these elections, received the most votes of all candidates from all parties in 2019.

The co-leading candidate is English teacher Amela Skenderovic (28) from Esch/Alzette, who also took part in last year's parliamentary and local elections, where she was well-placed but did not win a seat. She is standing in the European elections for the first time, as are our two other interviewees, Nancy Braun (51), former Director General of Esch 2022 and cultural manager, who took part in the chamber elections in 2023, and 28-year-old lawyer Jana Degrott, who has been a local councillor in Steinsel since 2017 and, despite her young age, is the most politically experienced of the three women we interviewed and is standing for election for the fifth time in total.

The DP's European list is completed by MEP and Bettembourg alderman Gusty Graas (66), who is standing in a European election for the second time since 2019, and marketing manager Christos Floros (30), who is standing for election for the first time ever.

One thing we have noticed in recent weeks is the event hopping that the majority of candidates, regardless of their political blood group, are also subjecting themselves to in this election campaign. There's not a party, barbecue or concert without friendly smiling politicians taking selfies.