The Left in Europe - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

The joint electoral success of 1999
The national and European elections of June 1999 were successful, but sobering.
With a result of 4.98 percent in the constituency South The Left
won a seat in the Luxembourg parliament. A peculiar feature of Luxembourg’s
electoral system is that voters can accumulate and vote for several
candidates from different lists at each political level (“panachage”). 14 André
Hoffmann (NL) was elected on the basis of the number of votes he received
personally. In October the same year local elections were held in which The
Left won six seats in five local authorities, including the country’s three
largest cities: Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, and Differdingen. When snap
elections were called in Esch-sur-Alzette on 30 April 2000 The Left attained
12.8%, its best result to date, and its candidate, André Hoffmann,
became deputy mayor. His place in the Luxembourg parliament was taken
by KPL Chairman Aloyse Bisdorff.
The second split of 2003
Luxemburg
After these electoral successes the conflicts hitherto concealed by the
shared electoral goals erupted in all their fury. Right from the start there
had been disagreement about the character of the new organization, which
had been papered over but not resolved by the term “collective movement”.
While the majority of the KPL wanted to hold onto their own party, the
New Left and RSP activists wanted more than just joint electoral lists. In
practice this meant that the CP members in The Left canvassed for their
own party and issued press releases in the name of the KPL, while the other
members did the same for The Left. Fuel was added to the flames by the
rotational principle, which in practice led to a lessening of Communist influence
in parliament and the local authorities. These differences came to a
head at the Second Congress of The Left in October 2001, when for the
first time as part of The Left the CP members appeared as a self-contained
group. Finally the KPL made an offer to The Left not to contest the 2004
elections within the framework of the joint collective movement, but separately
and on equal terms between Left and KPL. For most members of The
14 This means that citizens can vote for more than one candidate on their selected list and “delete” unwanted
candidates. They can also vote for candidates from different lists.
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