Campaigning in the country wit majority being foreigners isn’t easy

With just 6.7% of eligible non-national voters signed up to vote in this year’s local elections in Luxembourg City, déi Lénk are conducting a door-to-door campaign to get more foreigners involved.

Parliament last year abolished a five-year residency requirement for foreigners to vote in communal elections, which are open to EU and non-EU nationals alike.

“If only a minority of those who live in the city goes to vote, you have to wonder whom does the communal council still represent,” asked Guy Foetz, who sits on the capital’s council for the left-wing party.

In the last local elections, only around 14% of eligible non-nationals registered to vote, with fewer than 35,000 people casting their ballot in total out of 114,000 residents at the time.

While most parties have presented their candidates for the post of mayor in the capital, campaigning is in the early stages for the election on 11 June. The deadline for non-nationals to register to vote is 17 April. Parties in Monday are expected to sign a fair election agreement.

The government together with communes plans a national voter registration day on 18 March, and non-nationals can already sign up online via MyGuichet or at their local town hall.

The integration ministry organises the I can vote campaign, with municipalities and political parties also running different efforts to sign people up.

More than 70% of Luxembourg’s nearly 133,000 residents are foreigners.