First-time candidates pleased with results

The rollercoaster ride of the past few months has reached an end for some non-Luxembourgish candidates standing in this year's communal elections.

While many did not win seats, their taste of politics has taught them some valuable lessons.

“You realise that to establish a loyal support you need some time to show what you can do. It's a good start,” explained Stephen Clarke, standing for the LSAP in Niederanven where 18% of voters are non-Luxembourg nationals.

Getting involved

The Eurostat statistician, who has lived in Luxembourg for 10 years, joined the political party at the beginning of 2010 and was one of two non-nationals standing for the same party in his area on Sunday.

He said: “I wanted to be involved in local issues. It's not so easy to get involved when you're a foreigner but I was keen to do that and to improve my Luxembourgish and to get to know the people. Otherwise it's easy to live in a bubble.”

His first effort in local politics saw Stephen receive 441 votes in Niederanven. While it was not enough to win him a seat, he says that he is not ready to give up. “I'm very pleased with my result. It's a shame we didn't get more as a party. But, I'm pleased that the votes for foreigners were relatively high. That's good. I think I would stand again,” he said.

Taste of politics

In Dippach, a Commune where 10.7% of the voters are non-Luxembourg nationals, Briton Lisa Van Laarhoven was delighted with her result, despite missing out on a seat.

The full-time mother of two, who has lived in Luxembourg for the last 13 years, was standing as a candidate with the LSAP. She said: “I'm not in my ward but my party has won! We've got five seats. For us it's an extremely positive result. I think I did extremely well compared to a lot of other people on the list who were Luxembourgish. I got 254 personal votes, for me that's amazing. It's definitely given me a taste of politics. With our party having the majority, it means there are lots of things I can get involved in.”

Campaigning

Entrepreneur Sylvie de Amorin Rodrigues was also positive about her result in Kopstal. The French national won 191 votes for the Green party, of which 79 were personal votes.

It was not enough to win Sylvie a seat but she said she was happy that the Green party had secured 19% of the vote in her Commune.

“I never dreamed that I would get a seat,” Sylvie explained, adding: “I'm already very happy for the number of personal votes I got. For as a non-Luxembourgish candidate who has lived here only 18 months- that's good for me!”

Sylvie joined the Green party as a candidate to tackle some of the traffic issues in Bridel and to create a stronger sense of community where she lives. “It's my first time taking part in politics. I know that I will continue now. I've had a taste for it and I like it.

“I felt that we didn't make a very strong campaign. We were very soft and quite, nevertheless we got a good number of personal votes,” she said.