Unfortunately without a digestif

Tell me where you eat, and I'll tell you who you want to be – or at least how you want others to see you. When it comes to the traditional dinners hosted by the parties represented in Parliament to mark the end of a parliamentary session, the choice of restaurant has, in fact, come to be almost as much a part of the political message as the actual end-of-session press conference itself.

Some opt for a modern setting with panoramic views, others for organic food, and still others for traditional brasseries. The aim is for journalists to feel at ease, enjoy a good meal and then report as positively as possible on the afternoon. As if it were actually that simple.

The roles, however, are once again clearly defined this summer. The governing parties praise their own work, whilst the opposition parties gleefully tear it to pieces. This is about as predictable as the fact that, by dessert at the latest, someone will declare that the political return to work in Autumn will be decisive.

What is new, however, is a different trend. Whereas in the past there might have been at most one photographer moving between the tables, this year – particularly at the ruling parties' events – whole hordes of content creators were swarming through the restaurants. No sooner had anyone picked up their fork than photos were being taken, footage filmed or a short video recorded. These annual review dinners are slowly evolving from a meeting between politicians and journalists into a content production. In the past, the media wrote about the parties; today, the parties prefer to produce their own coverage straight away.

DP: The party with Aspro

Kicking off this year's end-of-session dinners was the party led by the country's undisputedly most popular politician, Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel – namely the DP – which had invited guests to a buffet at the Um Plateau restaurant. In true liberal fashion, everyone was, of course, free to choose for themselves what went onto their plate. The self-service buffet is probably the most market-oriented of all conceivable forms of catering.

However, not all ministers were present. The aforementioned Xavier Bettel, who is also Foreign Minister, was in Brussels, so the Liberal parliamentary group was largely left to its own devices, but by late afternoon he was back to show Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau round the old town – but that's another story.

Back to the end-of-session dinner: here, parliamentary group leader Gilles Baum provided a talking point amongst the fashion-conscious attendees with his new suit. The colour of the suit was somewhere between violet and pink – not even DP icon and Mayor of the Capital Lydie Polfer could tell us any more precisely, and that's saying something – and thus defied any clear political categorisation. Apparently, the shop assistant had explained that the style was actually intended for school-leaving celebrations, but Baum – who normally prefers to wear pinstripes – insisted on getting a suit like that too – and got it.