"I know that I am not right-wing extremist"

When we last spoke to Fernand Kartheiser, he was his party's lead candidate for the European elections. For the first time in its history, the adr then managed to enter the European Parliament, where it has since been represented by Kartheiser.

Lëtzebuerger Journal: Whether in the Chamber or in the European Parliament, you polarise like hardly any other Luxembourg politician.

Fernand Kartheiser: That may be the case. However, politics should be something where everyone takes a clear stance and voices their opinion, but unfortunately that has been somewhat lost nowadays. In earlier times, political parties also differed much more strongly from one another. Today, by contrast, there are four or five parties, but you could almost swap them all for one another.

But the adr is now pretty much on its own …

As an MP in the Chamber, I personally also had contact with other MPs with whom I got along well. Of course, there are always people you don't get along with. Fortunately, here in Luxembourg, we don't have the same kind of dogmatic firewall mentality that exists abroad. I also hope it stays that way, because that sort of thing is undemocratic. Anyone who sits in parliament was elected and deserves respect, because they represent the people from the population. I respect everyone, from the far left to the far right, even if of course I don't always agree with everything.

Let's get straight to your much-criticised trip to Moscow. You travelled to Moscow in early summer at the invitation of the Russian Duma, although your parliamentary group explicitly tried to dissuade you. Many describe your Moscow tour as a PR trip for the Kremlin. Was that a political statement, a taste for breaking taboo, or did you just want to make headlines that might translate into votes in the next European elections?

It certainly wasn't a PR trip. For me, it was clearly a political statement, because I am convinced that if you want to look for solutions, they can only be found together with Russia. I was a career diplomat for many years, and I remain deeply convinced that diplomacy is the only way to resolve this crisis. The Americans are slowly coming to the same conclusion as well (the interview took place shortly before the meeting between Trump and Putin, ed.). European politics, on the other hand, is at an impasse. Not least to underline this, I travelled to Moscow, where I also had very good discussions.