The Christian Social People's Party (, , ; CSV or PCS) is the largest

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...

. The party follows a

Christian democratic Christian democracy is an ideology inspired by Christian social teaching to respond to the challenges of contemporary society and politics. Christian democracy has drawn mainly from Catholic social teaching and neo-scholasticism, as well ...

and

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

ideology and has been described as centre to

centre-right Centre-right politics is the set of right-wing politics, right-wing political ideologies that lean closer to the political centre. It is commonly associated with conservatism, Christian democracy, liberal conservatism, and conservative liberalis ...

. Furthermore, akin to most parties in

, it is strongly

pro-European Pro-Europeanism, sometimes called European Unionism, is a political position that favours European integration and membership of the European Union (EU).Krisztina Arató, Petr Kaniok (editors). ''Euroscepticism and European Integration''. Pol ...

. The CSV is a member of the Christian Group,

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democracy, Christian democratic, liberal conservatism, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other p ...

, and the

Centrist Democrat International The Centrist Democrat International (CDI; , IDC) is a political international inspired by the values of Christian democracy. Until 2001, it was known as the Christian Democrat International (CDI); before 1999, it was known as the Christian Demo ...

. The CSV has been the largest party in 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 Bourb ...

since the party's formation, and currently holds 21 of 60 seats in the Chamber. Since the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, every

Prime Minister of Luxembourg The prime minister of Luxembourg (; ; ) is the head of government of Luxembourg. The prime minister leads the executive branch, chairs the Cabinet and appoints its ministers. Since 1989, the title of ''Prime Minister'' has been an official one, ...

has been a member of the CSV, with only two exceptions:

Gaston Thorn Gaston Egmond Thorn (3 September 192826 August 2007) was a Luxembourgish politician who served in a number of high-profile positions, both domestically and internationally. He most prominently served as prime minister of Luxembourg (1974–19 ...

(1974–1979), and

Xavier Bettel Xavier Bettel (; born 3 March 1973) is a Luxembourgish lawyer and politician who serves as the List of deputy prime ministers of Luxembourg, deputy prime minister of Luxembourg and as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Luxembourg), minister for Fo ...

(2013–2023). It holds two of

's six seats in the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two 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 ...

, as it has for 14 of the 44 years for which

MEPs A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and Steel Comm ...

have been directly elected. The party's

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

has been Prime Minister

Luc Frieden Luc Frieden (; born 16 September 1963) is a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer serving as List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg since November 2023. A member of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), he held nu ...

since March 2024. A leading figure from the party is the former

prime minister A prime minister 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. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who was List of prime ministers of Luxembourg, prime minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and president of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also was List ...

, who previously governed in coalition with the

Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (, , ), abbreviated to LSAP or POSL, is a social democratic, pro-European political party in Luxembourg Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Eu ...

(LSAP) until the 2013 general election.

History

The earliest roots of the CSV date back to the foundation of the Party of the Right on 16 January 1914. In December 1944, the Party of the Right was officially transformed into the Luxembourg Christian Social People's Party. "Luxembourg" was dropped from the name by late March 1945. The first elections after the Second World War took place in 1945; the party won 25 out of 51 seats, missing an absolute majority by a single seat. From 1945 to 1974, the party was in government and gave Luxembourg the following Prime Ministers: Pierre Dupong,

Joseph Bech Joseph Bech (17 February 1887 – 8 March 1975)Thewes, Guy"Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché depuis 1848." Service information et presse. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Centrale, 2011. was a Luxembourgish politician and lawyer. He was the prime minist ...

, Pierre Frieden, and

Pierre Werner Pierre Werner (29 December 1913 – 24 June 2002) was a Luxembourgish politician of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) who was the prime minister of Luxembourg from 1959 to 1974 and from 1979 to 1984. Training and early activities Pi ...

. Mostly in coalition with the Democratic Party (DP), it gave Luxembourg a certain economic and social stability. In the 1950s, the party structure underwent a certain democratisation: the party's youth section (founded in 1953) and women's section received representation in the party's central organs. The party went into opposition for the first time in 1974, when the Democratic Party's

became Prime Minister in coalition with the

(LSAP). In 1979, the party returned to government after its victory in the 1979 general election;

became PM. In 1984, Jacques Santer became PM. He remained as such until 1995, when

became PM, with Santer meanwhile taking up the post of President of the European Commission. Following the 2013 general election, the party went into opposition for the second time in its history as the Democratic Party's

became Prime Minister in coalition with the LSAP and The Greens, making it the first time in Luxembourg's history that a three-party coalition government had been formed. This also marked the first time that The Greens were part of a governmental coalition. Despite remaining the largest party, the result of the 2018 general election represented the lowest public support in the party's history. As of 2023, CSV is against making

luxembourgish Luxembourgish ( ; also ''Luxemburgish'', ''Luxembourgian'', ''Letzebu(e)rgesch''; ) is a West Germanic language that is spoken mainly in Luxembourg. About 400,000 people speak Luxembourgish worldwide. The language is standardized and officiall ...

an official language in the european insititutions, citing that french and german already being official languages is enough for the needs of Luxembourg.

Election results

Chamber of Deputies

ImageSize = width:700 height:150 PlotArea = width:600 height:125 left:25 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:CSV value:rgb(0.999,0.5,0) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:30 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:0 PlotData= bar:Seats color:CSV width:23 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1945 color:CSV from:start till:25 text:25 align:center bar:1948 color:CSV from:start till:22 text:22 align:center bar:1951 color:CSV from:start till:21 text:21 align:center bar:1954 color:CSV from:start till:26 text:26 align:center bar:1959 color:CSV from:start till:21 text:21 align:center bar:1964 color:CSV from:start till:22 text:22 align:center bar:1968 color:CSV from:start till:21 text:21 align:center bar:1974 color:CSV from:start till:18 text:18 align:center bar:1979 color:CSV from:start till:24 text:24 align:center bar:1984 color:CSV from:start till:25 text:25 align:center bar:1989 color:CSV from:start till:22 text:22 align:center bar:1994 color:CSV from:start till:21 text:21 align:center bar:1999 color:CSV from:start till:19 text:19 align:center bar:2004 color:CSV from:start till:24 text:24 align:center bar:2009 color:CSV from:start till:26 text:26 align:center bar:2013 color:CSV from:start till:23 text:23 align:center bar:2018 color:CSV from:start till:21 text:21 align:center bar:2023 color:CSV from:start till:21 text:21 align:center ImageSize = width:700 height:150 PlotArea = width:600 height:125 left:25 bottom:20 AlignBars = justify Colors = id:CSV value:rgb(0.999,0.5,0) DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:0 till:500 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:50 start:0 PlotData= bar:Vote% color:CSV width:23 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S bar:1945 color:CSV from:start till:447 text:44.7 align:center bar:1948 color:CSV from:start till:363 text:36.3 align:center bar:1951 color:CSV from:start till:421 text:42.1 align:center bar:1954 color:CSV from:start till:424 text:42.4 align:center bar:1959 color:CSV from:start till:369 text:36.9 align:center bar:1964 color:CSV from:start till:333 text:33.3 align:center bar:1968 color:CSV from:start till:352 text:35.2 align:center bar:1974 color:CSV from:start till:276 text:27.6 align:center bar:1979 color:CSV from:start till:345 text:34.5 align:center bar:1984 color:CSV from:start till:349 text:34.9 align:center bar:1989 color:CSV from:start till:324 text:32.4 align:center bar:1994 color:CSV from:start till:303 text:30.3 align:center bar:1999 color:CSV from:start till:301 text:30.1 align:center bar:2004 color:CSV from:start till:361 text:36.1 align:center bar:2009 color:CSV from:start till:380 text:38.0 align:center bar:2013 color:CSV from:start till:336 text:33.6 align:center bar:2018 color:CSV from:start till:283 text:28.3 align:center bar:2023 color:CSV from:start till:292 text:29.2 align:center

European Parliament

Party office-holders

Presidents

Émile Reuter Émile Reuter (2 August 1874 – 14 February 1973)Thewes, Guy"Les gouvernements du Grand-Duché depuis 1848."Service information et presse. Luxembourg: Imprimerie Centrale, 2011. was a Luxembourgish politician. He served as prime minister of Lux ...

(1945–1964) * Tony Biever (1964–1965) * Jean Dupong (1965–1972) * Nicolas Mosar (1972–1974) * Jacques Santer (1974–1982) * Jean Spautz (1982–1990) *

(1990–1995) * Erna Hennicot-Schoepges (1995–2003) * François Biltgen (2003–2009) * Michel Wolter (2009–2014) * Marc Spautz (2014–2019) * Frank Engel (2019–2021) * Claude Wiseler (2021–2023) * Elisabeth Margue (2022–2024) *

(2024–present)

General Secretaries

* Nicolas Hommel (1944–1946) * Lambert Schaus (1945–1952) * Pierre Grégoire (1952–1960) * Nicolas Mosar (1960–1972) * Jacques Santer (1972–1974) * Jean Weber (1974–1977) * Jean-Pierre Kraemer (1977–1984) * Willy Bourg (1984–1990) * Camille Dimmer (1990–1995) * Claude Wiseler (1995–2000) * Jean-Louis Schiltz (2000–2006) * Marco Schank (2006–2009) * Marc Spautz (2009–2012) * Laurent Zeimet (2012–2019) * Félix Eischen (2019–2021) * Christophe Hansen (2021–2023) * Stéphanie Weydert (2022–2024)

Presidents of Christian Social People's Party in the Chamber of Deputies

* Tony Biever (1959–1974) *

(1974–1979) * Nicolas Mosar (1979–1984) * François Colling (1984–1995) * Lucien Weiler (1996–2004) * Michel Wolter (2004–2009) * Jean-Louis Schiltz (2009–2011) * Lucien Thiel (2011)+ * Marc Spautz (2011–2013) * Gilles Roth (2013) * Claude Wiseler (2014–2018) * Martine Hansen (2018–2023) * Marc Spautz (2023–present) + Died in office

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1944 establishments in Luxembourg Political parties established in 1944 Catholic political parties Centre-right parties in Europe Christian democratic parties in Europe Member parties of the European People's Party Political parties in Luxembourg Conservative parties in Luxembourg