Last weekend, Luxembourg’s Foreign Affairs Minister published an offensive email he received from an angry citizen.

One week later, the author of the same email gave a written apology to Jean Asselborn, saying he was “surprised by and ashamed of” his own behaviour.

The citizen goes on to apologise to the Minister and everybody else he “insulted”, including the family of Mr Asselborn.

The person further writes that he doesn’t consider himself to be “a bad person” but that sometimes, he takes extreme stances in order to be provocative. However, the man agreed that “criticism should always be shared in a respectful and constructive way”.

Minister Asselborn published the man’s apology on Facebook, saying that he accepts it.

After the publication of the first email, Asselborn received a wave of sympathy on social media from people that were shocked by the tone of the text.

Politicians are increasingly facing similar problems, as evidenced for example by a 15-month prison sentence given to a man who threatened to kill Prime Minister Bettel in November last year.