The National Executive of Déi Lénk – La Gauche (The Left) met last Tuesday to closely analyse the results of last Sunday’s council elections in Luxembourg.
On 9 October 2005 Déi Lénk lost 3 of its 4 seats on the local councils of the biggest councils with Proportional Representation system. In the cities of Sanem and Luxembourg we were short of 942 votes (or approximately 35 voters) and 514 votes (or approximately 34 voters), which would have been necessary to save 2 seats. In Esch-sur-Alzette, we would have needed another 1,938 votes or approximately 102 voters to be able to save our 2nd seat (we nevertheless managed to keep one seat). Only a small fraction of the votes gained by the KPL (Communist Party of Luxembourg) would have sufficed to keep all three seats.
It becomes obvious that the KPL’s sectarian move to split off from its alliance with Déi Lénk, resulting in rival electoral lists that very often were totally unnecessary, is to be blamed for this weakening of a truly anti-capitalist alternative to the ongoing neoliberal dismantling of social progress and democratic reforms.
A certain kind of media in the service of the neoliberal brand of capitalism had predicted that Déi Lénk would not survive the latest council elections. The reality of our 37,766 votes nationwide is hard for them to swallow, just as the shocking figure of nearly 10,000 unem-ployed is impossible for us to accept. The relatively high number of votes that we have obtained encourages us in our daily fight against any attempt to destroy social welfare and workers’ rights. A true alternative to neoliberal Capitalism has never been needed more than just now, both on a national and a European level.
Our project will continue to construct a radical Left which refuses to be locked up in dogmatic and sectarian discourses and policies. We will try and make people and militants from all shades of anti-Capitalist traditions work together. In our political fight, we will try and reach people from all kinds of sociological backgrounds by appealing to everybody’s thirst for social justice.
                                                                                                  Luxembourg, 12 October 2005