Early general elections were held in

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

on 20 October 2013. The elections were called after Prime Minister

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who was List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also was List ...

, at the time the longest-serving head of government in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

, announced his resignation over a spy scandal involving the

Service de Renseignement de l'État The Service de Renseignement de l'État, full name Service de renseignement de l'État du Luxembourg (, , abbr. SREL), is Luxembourg's homeland intelligence agency. The agency is colloquially known in Luxembourgish as the "''Spëtzeldéngscht''� ...

(SREL). The review found Juncker deficient in his control over the service. Although the elections saw Juncker's

Christian Social People's Party The Christian Social People's Party (, , ; CSV or PCS) is the largest political party in Luxembourg. The party follows a Christian democratic and conservative ideology and has been described as centre to centre-right. Furthermore, akin to most ...

(CSV) lose three seats, but remain the largest party in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

with 23 of the 60 seats,

Xavier Bettel Xavier Bettel (; born 3 March 1973) is a Luxembourgish lawyer and politician who serves as the List of deputy prime ministers of Luxembourg, deputy prime minister of Luxembourg and as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Luxembourg), minister for Fo ...

of the Democratic Party (DP) succeeded him as Prime Minister.

Background

After a spy scandal involving the

illegally

wiretapping Wiretapping, also known as wire tapping or telephone tapping, is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitoring connecti ...

politicians, the

Grand Duke Grand duke (feminine: grand duchess) is a European hereditary title, used either by certain monarchs or by members of certain monarchs' families. The title is used in some current and former independent monarchies in Europe, particularly: * in ...

and his family, as well as allegations of paying for favours in exchange for access to government ministers and officials leaked through the press, Prime Minister Juncker submitted his

resignation Resignation is the formal act of relinquishing or vacating one's office or position. A resignation can occur when a person holding a position gained by election or appointment steps down, but leaving a position upon the expiration of a term, or ...

to the Grand Duke on 11 July 2013, upon knowledge of the withdrawal of the

Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (, , ), abbreviated to LSAP or POSL, is a social democratic, pro-European political party in Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Eu ...

from the government and thereby losing its

confidence and supply In parliamentary system, parliamentary democracies based on the Westminster system, confidence and supply is an arrangement under which a minority government (one which does not control a majority in the legislature) receives the support of one ...

in the

. Juncker urged the Grand Duke for the immediate

dissolution of parliament The dissolution of a legislative assembly (or parliament) is the simultaneous termination of service of all of its members, in anticipation that a successive legislative assembly will reconvene later with possibly different members. In a democracy ...

and the calling of a

snap election A snap election is an election that is called earlier than the one that has been scheduled. Snap elections in parliamentary systems are often called to resolve a political impasse such as a hung parliament where no single political party has a ma ...

Electoral system

Specimen Elections legislatives Luxembourg 2013

The 60 members of the

were elected by

proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to any electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to political divisions (Political party, political parties) amon ...

in four multi-member constituencies; 9 in

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

constituency, 7 in

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

, 23 in

South South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

and 21 in

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

. Voters could vote for a party list or cast multiple votes for as many candidates as there were seats. Seat allocation was calculated in accordance with the

Hagenbach-Bischoff quota In the study of electoral systems, the Droop quota (sometimes called the Hagenbach-Bischoff, Britton, or Newland-Britton quota) is the minimum number of votes a party or candidate needs to receive in a district to guarantee they will win at leas ...

.Electoral system
IPU Voting was compulsory for all citizens between the age of 18 and 75, whilst those over 75 and citizens living abroad were the only ones allowed to vote by post. Failure to vote could have resulted in a fine of between €100 and €250.

Parties

Nine parties contested the election, of which five won seats in the Chamber of Deputies at the last election: the

(CSV), the

(LSAP), the Democratic Party (DP),

the Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * The Greens (Benin) *The Greens (Bulgaria) * Greens of Bosnia and He ...

, the

Alternative Democratic Reform Party The Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR; , , ) is a conservative and mildly populist political party in Luxembourg. It has five seats in the sixty-seat Chamber of Deputies, making it the fourth-largest party. In 2024, the party received it ...

(ADR), and The Left. Two extra-parliamentary parties also ran: the Communist Party (KPL) and

Pirate Party Luxembourg The Pirate Party Luxembourg (; ; ) is a registered political party in Luxembourg. The party follows the pirate political doctrine developed by the Swedish Pirate Party. It champions ''citizen's rights'', improved data protection and privacy f ...

(PPLU). In addition, the Party for Full Democracy (PID), which was headed by

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

deputy Jean Colombera, also contested the election. All parties that ran in the election submitted lists in all constituencies.

Opinion polls

Results

By locality

Luxembourg legislative election 2013 communes map

As in 2004 and 2009, the CSV won pluralities in each of Luxembourg's four constituencies. However, the CSV's performance declined in all constituencies from 2009. The CSV held up the best in

, where it lost only 3.29% compared to its 2009 result. The CSV's sharpest decline was in

, where the party lost 5.91%. It nonetheless held a 10% lead over DP in North; North was the last constituency to not vote for the CSV at the national level, when the DP beat the CSV by 2% in North in 1999. Overall, despite a relative decline, the CSV retained a comfortable lead in all constituencies, both in votes and in seats.

By constituency

Distribution of seats by constituency

Government formation

Following the elections, the Democratic Party, the Socialist Workers' Party and The Greens began initial talks about forming a coalition (dubbed the "Gambia coalition", after Gambia's flag colours, a local variant of the German

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition () is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' traditional colours, respectively red, y ...

), pushing the Christian Social People's Party into the opposition for the first time since 1979. On 25 October,

, the leader of the Democratic Party and mayor of

Luxembourg City Luxembourg (; ; ), also known as Luxembourg City ( or ; ; or ), is the capital city of Luxembourg and the Communes of Luxembourg, country's most populous commune. Standing at the confluence of the Alzette and Pétrusse rivers in southern Luxe ...

, was named

formateur A formateur (French for "someone who forms, who constitutes") is a politician who is appointed to lead the formation of a coalition government, after either a general election or the collapse of a previous government. The role of the formateur i ...

by the

Grand Duke of Luxembourg The Grand Duke of Luxembourg is the head of state of Luxembourg. Luxembourg has been a grand duchy since 15 March 1815, when it was created from territory of the former Duchy of Luxembourg. It was in personal union with the United Kingdom of ...

. The negotiations were finished by 29 November, as planned. The new Bettel–Schneider Ministry was sworn in on 4 December. It succeeded the Juncker–Asselborn Ministry II.

References

{{Luxembourgian elections

General elections in Luxembourg 2013 in Luxembourg October 2013 in Europe