86% satisfied foreigners not able to vote

A large majority of Luxembourgers have said they are satisfied with the rejection of full foreigner voting rights in Luxembourg, on which they voted in the June 7 referendum.

The voting rights question was one of three put to Luxembourgers, 78 percent of which rejected the idea with a clear 'Nee'.

A politmonitor survey commisioned by the Luxemburger Wort after the referendum, showed that 86 percent of voters polled were happy with this outcome. 

Foreigners want to vote

The survey results hint at why Luxembourgers voted the way they did, though lack of knowledge of what foreign residents wanted was not one of the reasons, it would seem.

Just under half of voters polled (47 percent) said they believed foreigners wanted to be able to vote in legislative elections in Luxembourg.

And half (51 percent) conceded that the foreign residents should have been consulted as to whether or not they were concretely interested in voting and were ready to register to vote.

No surprise that the survey showed that supporters of opposition parties CSV and ADR were more likely to have voted 'no' to the foreigner voting rights question. Both parties have publicly opposed the three proposals contained in the referendum.

However, the response was more nuanced for supporters of parties which make up Luxembourg's coalition government and which made the proposals.

Green party supporters were most likely to vote in favour of full foreigner voting rights (56 percent), while less than half of LSAP (48 percent) and DP (44 percent) supporters backed it. 

Negative impact on country's image

Among age bands, foreigner voting rights had the strongest backing of 18-24-year-olds, more than a third of which voted in favour.

Despite being satisfied with the 'no' vote, more than a third of respondents said the rejection of full foreigner voting rights would have a negative impact on the country's image in Europe.

The other two referendum questions, which were also refused by a large majority concerned lowering the voting age for Luxembourgers to 16 (on a voluntary basis) and limiting ministerial mandates to 10 years (two terms).

More than half of respondents (59 percent) said they were surprised by the extent to which the three questions were opposed but only one in ten of respondents said they were surprised that the outcome had been three times 'no'. 

Critics of government

A tenth of voters who participated in the poll said that the government should resign and almost a fifth (18 percent) called for fresh elections.

Meanwhile, a third (30 percent) said they did not think the current government would survive until the next legislative elections, planned for 2018. 

The Politmonitor survey was conducted from June 10 to 17 by TNS Ilres with 965 people, wof which 73 percent were Luxembourgish.

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