"We don't stir up fears"

He may not be a political newcomer, and yet everything is about to change for 37-year-old literary scholar Michel Lemaire. After eight years as a parliamentary assistant for his party, the Clervaux-based municipal councillor and former president of the adr youth section will next week move from the second to the first political tier, taking over the mandate of adr oldie Jeff Engelen.

Lëtzebuerger Journal: What did you have to do for Jeff Engelen to retire from the Chamber and hand over his mandate to you?

Michel Lemaire: Absolutely nothing. I have always said that the decision to retire early from Parliament was up to Jeff Engelen and Jeff Engelen alone. I never approached him about a possible resignation.

However, the fact that you are now stepping up can only benefit your party, as your arrival lowers the average age of the adr parliamentary group by quite a few years. We have heard that you are even a few months younger than adr president Alexandra Schoos, who is also 37. That makes you the greenhorn of the adr…

… you could say that.

With Jeff Engelen's departure, however, the last original adr member, and also the last worker, is leaving the Chamber of Deputies. So from now on, the self-proclaimed party of the common people will be represented in the Chamber only by academics…

Dan Hardy was a journalist and is not an academic either…

Which still doesn't exactly make him a worker…

What I meant to say is that our party's former elected representatives are still there to help and advise us, even if they are now doing so from the second row. I learnt a lot from Jeff Engelen, especially in terms of his commitment to the northern district. He also gave me a lot to take with me, so that there will certainly be no break now.