Populism in Luxembourg (TruLies Blog by Jean-Marie Majerus)
“Mir wëlle bleiwe wat mir sin.“ (We want to stay what we are.) This national motto of Luxembourg emerged in the 19th century, the time of the development of national consciousness and was supposed to make reference to the independence of the grand duchy. However, to the dismay of many Luxembourgers, more than 100 years later, this sentence was used by the now dissolved racist Luxemburgish “national movement” under the lead of Pierre Peters, an economist sentenced for xenophobia. While Luxembourgers are known for being down-to-earth, their multilingualism and cosmopolitanism usually means that xenophobia is not much of an issue. It could therefore be asked if Luxembourg is a country “immune against racism”, as was claimed by a sociological study in 1997. Accordingly, the underlying question would be: Why are populist parties relatively successful in some Western European countries, while they fail in others? In a new TruLies blog post, Jean-Marie Marjerus traces the development of the few slightly populist movements in Luxembourg and the reasons for their lack of success, but also asks if Luxembourg can stay an “Island of the Blessed”, surrounded by a populist ocean.
Jean-Marie Majerus is the deputy director of the „Centre d’études et de recherches européennes Robert Schuman (CERE)“ (European Study and Research Centre Robert Schuman).
The project “TruLies – The Truth about Lies on Europe”, aided by the Stiftung Mercator and run by the Institute for European Politics (IEP) in cooperation with Das Progressive Zentrum, has two principal objectives. On the one hand, it strives to deconstruct Eurosceptic and populist prejudices, animosities, and false assertions, by means of social scientifically-grounded analysis. Thus, it aims to contribute to a rationalisation of the public discourse and debate in Germany (and beyond). On the other hand, “TruLies Europe” endeavours to publicly communicate its findings beyond the select circle of scholars to political actors, civil society, and the wider public. You may find further information on our website: http://trulies-europe.de/.
Jean-Marie Majerus‘s contribution can be found here.