General elections were held in

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

on 7 June 2009, together with the 2009 election to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

. All sixty members of the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...

were elected for five years. The polls were topped by the

Christian Social People's Party The Christian Social People's Party ( lb, Chrëschtlech Sozial Vollekspartei, french: Parti populaire chrétien-social, german: Christlich Soziale Volkspartei), abbreviated to CSV or PCS, is the largest political party in Luxembourg. The party f ...

, which built upon its already high number of seats to achieve a commanding victory, with the highest vote share and number of seats of any party since

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

. Incumbent Prime Minister

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...

, who is longest serving head of government in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, renewed the coalition agreement with Deputy Prime Minister and

Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party ( lb, Lëtzebuerger Sozialistesch Aarbechterpartei, french: Parti ouvrier socialiste luxembourgeois, german: Luxemburger Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei), abbreviated to LSAP or POSL, is a social-democratic, pr ...

leader

Jean Asselborn Jean Asselborn (; born 27 April 1949) is a Luxembourgish politician who has served in the government of Luxembourg as Minister for Foreign Affairs since 2004. He also served as Deputy Prime Minister from 2004 to 2013, under Prime Minister Jean-Cl ...

and formed the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry II, which was sworn-in on 23 July 2009.

Parties

Seven parties ran candidates in all four circonscriptions, of which, five were already represented in the Chamber of Deputies: the

(CSV), the

(LSAP), the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

(DP),

the Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties * Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' * Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina * Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *G ...

, and the

Alternative Democratic Reform Party The Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR; lb, Alternativ Demokratesch Reformpartei, french: Parti réformiste d'alternative démocratique, german: Alternative Demokratische Reformpartei) is a conservative and mildly populist political party ...

(ADR). Two parties that were not then represented also ran: The Left and the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

(KPL). In addition, the

Citizens' List The Citizens' List ( lb, Biergerlëscht, french: Liste des citoyens) is a Luxembourgian political party. It was founded in the run-up to the 2009 Chamber of Deputies election and European election. It ran in two circonscriptions; in Sud, the ...

, which was headed by current

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independ ...

deputy

Aly Jaerling Alphonse 'Aly' Jaerling (born 30 January 1948 in Esch-sur-Alzette) is a Luxembourgish politician. He sat in the Chamber of Deputies from 1999, when he was first elected for the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) until 2009. He is also a me ...

, ran in two constituencies.

Results

By locality

Luxembourg legislative election 2009 communes map

As in 2004, the CSV won pluralities in each of Luxembourg's four circonscriptions, and pluralities in nearly all of Luxembourg's

communes An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

. Only four communes didn't register pluralities for the CSV (down from seven in 2004).

Wiltz Wiltz ( lb, Wolz or (locally) ) is a commune with town status in north-western Luxembourg, capital of the canton Wiltz. Wiltz is situated on the banks of the river Wiltz. It was also a battleground in the Battle of the Bulge, near the en ...

in the north and

Dudelange Dudelange (; lb, Diddeleng , german: Düdelingen) is a commune with town status in southern Luxembourg. It is the fourth-most populous commune, with 19,734 inhabitants. Dudelange is situated close to the border with France. , the town of Dudela ...

Kayl Kayl ( lb, Keel or (locally) ) is a commune and town in south-western Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Gra ...

, and

Rumelange Rumelange ( lb, Rëmeleng ; german: Rümelingen) is a commune with town status in south-western Luxembourg, on the border with France. Populated places The commune consists of the following villages: * Rumelange * Haut-Tétange (lieu-dit) Pop ...

in the southern

Red Lands The Red Lands form a geographic region in southern and south-western Luxembourg. They are so called for their red iron-laden earth. The Red Lands roughly correspond with the southern part of the canton of Esch-sur-Alzette, along the border with Fra ...

voted for the LSAP. The CSV's performance improved most markedly in

Centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics *Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentricity ...

, where it increased its vote from 35.5% to 38.6%. In Centre, the CSV received almost twice as many votes as the Democratic Party in, only ten years after the DP won a plurality by over 2%. It gained one extra seat in Centre, and another in Est.

Aftermath

The CSV's large margin of victory guaranteed that it would form the government once again, with

appointed as ''

formateur A formateur (French for "someone who forms, who constitutes") is a politician who is appointed to lead the formation of a coalition government, after either a general election or the collapse of a previous government. The role of the formateur is ...

'' and likely to remain as

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

. Before the election, Juncker, Europe's longest-serving

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

, had told his party that he intended to step down as Minister for Finances, to be replaced by

Luc Frieden Luc Frieden (born 16 September 1963) is a Luxembourgish politician, lawyer, and business executive. He has held several posts in the cabinet of Luxembourg, including as Minister for Justice (1998–2009), Minister for Defence (2004–2006), and ...

. This brought into question his chairmanship of the Europe-wide

Eurogroup The Eurogroup is the recognised collective term for the informal meetings of the finance ministers of the eurozone—those member states of the European Union (EU) which have adopted the euro as their official currency. The group has 19 member ...

, which he had chaired since 2005. However, he has since stated that he would remain in charge of

monetary policy Monetary policy is the policy adopted by the monetary authority of a nation to control either the interest rate payable for very short-term borrowing (borrowing by banks from each other to meet their short-term needs) or the money supply, often a ...

and relations with the

European Central Bank The European Central Bank (ECB) is the prime component of the monetary Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks (ESCB) as well as one of seven institutions of the European Union. It is one of the world's Big Four (banking)#Intern ...

. The CSV was in a strong enough position to form a coalition with any one of three parties: LSAP (partner in the Juncker-Asselborn Ministry I), the DP (partner in the Juncker-Polfer Ministry), and the Greens (who had never previously entered the government). However, the DP and Greens had both ruled out the possibility of a coalition with the CSV, leaving only the previous coalition partners, LSAP, in the running. The CSV and LSAP formed a coalition agreement, with Juncker as Prime Minister and Jean Asselborn as

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president, ...

, with the new government forming on 23 July.

References

{{Luxembourgian elections

2009 in Luxembourg Chamber of Deputies (Luxembourg) elections June 2009 events in Europe