Expats slowly rising into politics

Interest in Luxembourg politics is growing among non-nationals, who accounted for 7% of the candidates standing in Sunday's communal elections.

The statistic suggests that the level of foreign participation has risen slightly since 2005, when 6% of all candidates were of non-Luxembourg nationality.

Among those standing were 11 people of non-EU origin, who were allowed to stand for the first time in the country's history.

Despite a strong interest, foreign candidates may still have some work to do on their campaigns, however, as only 17 out of 233 non-nationals standing won seats in their communes.

Among the successful candidates were five Germans, three French, three Dutch, three Portuguese and one Austrian national. Six were elected in proportional representation voting districts and 11 were elected by majority vote.

Altogether 3,319 candidates stood in the 2011 communal elections. The Green party appears to attract the most non-Luxembourg nationals, offering up 60 candidates this year, followed by the LSAP (42), DP (37), CSV (19), KPL and Déi Léng (14) and ADR (6).

International applicants were Portuguese (69), followed by Italians and Germans (39), French (24), Belgian (18), Dutch (13), other nationalities within the European community (20) and non-European origin (11).

The figures for non-Luxembourg nationals do not include foreigners who have acquired Luxembourgish nationality.