Party and Coalition in Luxembourg

Abstract

Luxembourg has, for many years, had a very stable pattern of coalition government dominated by coalitions between the Chrestlech-Sozial Vollekspartei (CSV) and either the Letzeburger Sozialistech Arbechter Partei (LSAP) or the (Liberal) Demokratesch Partei (DP). Indeed, the CSV has led almost every cabinet since the Second World War, alternation being confined to its more or less regular switching between the LSAP and the DP. The two exceptions to this rule of CSV-led two-party governments were the Dupong Government of National Union in which all three traditional parties together with the Communists took part during the immediate post-war year, and Gaston Thorn’s Government of 1974–79, the only one since the First World War to have excluded the CSV. In this respect, the CSV must clearly qualify as the predominant party in the system.