Author Topic: Luxembourg votes in early elections  (Read 696 times)

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Offline EC

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Luxembourg votes in early elections
« on: October 20, 2013, 09:26:10 am »
Via al Jazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/10/luxembourg-votes-early-elections-201310208544174276.html

Quote
Voters in Luxembourg are going to the polls as Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, Europe's longest-serving leader, faces his toughest election yet after 18 years at the helm.

The snap legislative elections in the European Union's wealthiest nation per capita follow a scandal over misconduct by the secret service that fractured the coalition government headed by Juncker's Christian Social People's Party (CSV).

Its junior Socialist Party (LSAP) partners withheld support when opponents accused the prime minister of having been too busy steering the euro currency through crisis - in his capacity as head of the Eurogroup - to get his dysfunctional intelligence service back on track.

Misdemeanours by the SREL secret service, which the Juncker is supposed to oversee, included illegal phone taps, corruption and even dodgy dealings in luxury cars.

Rising unemployment

Polls opened at 8am (06:00 GMT) and are due to close at 2pm as the Liberals and Greens appear poised to make enough gains to enable them to propose a new coalition with the Socialists.

The election takes place amid signs of voter weariness with Luxembourg's more familiar political faces. In addition, unemployment has risen to almost seven percent and debt has tripled in the last 15 years.

Aged 58, Juncker, who first became prime minister in 1995, has spent literally half his life in government.

More at link. OK, it's a tiny country - more a city state than anything else - that very few people could point out on a map without looking it up. Still interesting.
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