The Democratic Party (DP; , , ) is the major social-liberal political party in Luxembourg. One of the three major parties, the DP sits on the centre to centre-right, holding moderate market liberal views combined with a strong emphasis on civil liberties, human rights, and internationalism.
Founded in 1955, the party is currently led by Lex Delles. Its former president, Xavier Bettel, was the Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 2013 to 2023, leading the Bettel I and II governments in coalition with the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) and The Greens. It is the second-largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, with fourteen seats out of sixty, having won 17.8% of the vote at the 2023 general election, and has one seat in the European Parliament out of six. The party's stronghold is around Luxembourg City,
History
Emergence as major party
Although the party traces its history back to the foundation of the Liberal League in 1904, it was founded in its current form on 24 April 1955. It was the successor to the Democratic Group, which had grown out of the major group of war-time liberal resistance fighters, the Patriotic and Democratic Group. The DP spent the majority of the 1950s and 1960s, under the leadership of Lucien Dury and then Gaston Thorn, establishing itself as the third major party, ahead of the Communist Party.
At the time of its foundation, the party had six seats in the Chamber of Deputies. At the following election in 1959, the DP won 11 seats, allowing it to serve as a minor role in a grand coalition with the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) and Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP). However, in 1964, the party went back to six seats. In 1968, the DP absorbed the anti-establishment Popular Independent Movement. In that year's election, the party benefited from a tide of moderates shifting from an increasingly radical LSAP, Surprisingly, in the negotiations, the DP got the upper hand, securing the most ministerial positions and departments, as well as the premiership itself under Gaston Thorn.
The formation of Thorn's government, however, coincided with the beginning of an economic crisis, and the government was occupied mostly with the restructuring of the steel industry whilst attempting to avoid mass unemployment. including abolishing capital punishment (1974), allowing no-fault divorce (1975) and broadening at-fault divorce (1978), and legalising abortion (1978). In 1977, the government abandoned plans to build a nuclear power plant at Remerschen, When PM, in 1975, Thorn sat as President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Since 1979
In 1979, Thorn went head-to-head with Werner, with the LSAP serving a supporting role to the DP. Both the CSV ended victorious, gaining six seats, and the LSAP's loss of three seats made it impossible for the DP to renew the coalition with them. As a result, Werner formed a coalition with the DP, with Thorn as Deputy Prime Minister. In the first European election in 1979, the DP won 2 seats: an achievement that it hasn't matched since. In 1980, Thorn was named the new President of the European Commission, and was replaced by Colette Flesch.
The 1984 general election saw the DP's first electoral setback in twenty years. and on 4 December 2013 the Bettel-Schneider government was sworn in, with DP leader Xavier Bettel serving as Prime Minister. The 2018 general election saw the DP lose a seat, but the three-party coalition was able to maintain its majority under the Bettel II Government. In 2023, though the DP gained the most votes in its history and had its best result since 1999 with 14 seats, the electoral defeat of the Greens, who went from 9 to 4 seats, meant the government lost its majority. The party became a junior coalition partner to the CSV, with Bettel becoming Deputy Prime Minister in the Frieden-Bettel Government.
Ideology
The Democratic Party sits on the moderate centre-right of the political spectrum in Luxembourg. Since the late 1960s, thanks to the secularisation of Luxembourg and the CSV, the party has moved gradually towards the centre, to allow it to form coalitions with either the CSV or LSAP. Now, it could be seen to be to the left of the CSV, in the centre, and with more in common with the British Liberal Democrats or German Free Democratic Party than with liberal parties in Belgium or the Netherlands. However, the CSV usually prefers forming coalitions with the LSAP to those with the DP, pushing the DP to the economically liberal right. The party puts great emphasis on the role of the United Nations, and Thorn served as President of the UN General Assembly. The party is centrist on national security, supporting membership of NATO, but having worked to end conscription. and consequently has a very distinctive class profile. When in government, the DP has always held the office of Minister for the Middle Class. Most DP supporters are civil servants, white-collar workers, self-employed people, and those on high incomes. This group has been fast-growing, further focusing the party's electoral socio-economic appeal.
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European Parliament
{| class=wikitable style="text-align: center;"
|-
! Election
! List leader
! Votes
! %
! Seats
! +/–
! EP Group
|-
! 1979
| Gaston Thorn
| 274,307
| 28.13 (#2)
|
| New
| LD
|-
! 1984
| rowspan=2 | Colette Flesch
| 218,481
| 22.07 (#3)
|
| 1
| rowspan=2 | LDR
|-
! 1989
| 198,254
| 19.95 (#3)
|
| 0
|-
! 1994
| Lydie Polfer
| 190,977
| 18.83 (#3)
|
| 0
| rowspan=2 | ELDR
|-
! 1999
| Charles Goerens
| 207,379
| 20.46 (#2)
|
| 0
|-
! 2004
| Lydie Polfer
| 162,064
| 14.87 (#4)
|
| 0
| rowspan=3 | ALDE
|-
! 2009
| rowspan=4 | Charles Goerens
| 210,107
| 18.66 (#3)
|
| 0
|-
! 2014
| 173,255
| 14.78 (#3)
|
| 0
|-
! 2019
| 268,910
| 21.44 (#1)
|
| 1
| rowspan=2 | RE
|-
! 2024
| 253,344
| 18.29 (#3)
|
| 1
|-
|}
See also
- Liberalism in Luxembourg