The false multilingualism of the election campaign

The elections on June 11 will go down in Luxembourg's political history as the first in which non-Luxembourg residents benefited from an unprecedented easing of voting conditions. The reform of the electoral law adopted on 13 July 2022 aimed to make voting more accessible to foreign residents, by removing the requirement to prove five years' residence in Luxembourg, extending the registration deadline by 32 days and making it possible to register via MyGuichet.lu. The objective stated by the Minister of the Interior Taina Bofferding (LSAP): "an increased participation of foreigners in the political life of the country, because even if the registration rate has not stopped increasing since 1999, the 22.8% reached during the 2017 communal elections is far from satisfactory."

With less than two weeks to go before the closing date for registration – 17 April at 5pm – the registration rate remains low at 16.1% (figures from 31 March). This is enough to raise some scepticism within many parties. Some members use this low rate to say that it is not worth making an effort for foreign voters since they are not interested in the elections.