Luxembourg's online petition system has been a great success: More than 750 viable petitions have been submitted since its creation, hundreds of thousands of signatures were collected and in 26 cases, the petitions exceeded the threshold of 4,500 signatures. This means that these petitions were automatically referred to parliament for further discussion. In some cases, the new petition system brought about actual political change.
In the first six months of 2018, one petition was submitted for each workday on average. The topics that seem to have garnered the most support concerned language and childcare amongst others.
The president of the petition commission and CSV MP Marco Schank looks back on a successful few years with the new system.
Before online petitions were introduced, only about 330 petitions were submitted over a period of 70 years, which averages out to about five per year. Schank stated that these numbers have gone through the roof since the introduction of the online petition system:
"No one would have guessed that the new petition system would strike such a cord with citizens. The first six months of 2018 on average saw about one petition submitted per workday."
The Christian Social People's Party politician recently passed the presidency on to his colleague and fellow CSV politician Nancy Kemp-Arendt.
As long as petitioners respect certain basic conditions, anyone can hand in their petition idea. Check-list in hand, the petition commission then makes sure that the format is right, for example when it comes to languages. As a basic rule, the commission leaves the content of the petition unchanged, but there are limits to the rule:
"We obviously have to make sure that the petitions are not discriminatory, that is an important point. They should not be offensive or even insulting."
Petition submissions that promote racist or sexist ideas do not make the cut and won't be admitted.
To make sure that every petition gets the same exposure, they are open for a fixed period of 42 days. In order for a petition to go through to parliament, it needs a minimum of 4,500 signatures. So far, 26 petitions have reached the 4,500 signature mark and were put up for a public debate in Luxembourg's parliament.
Petition 698 is currently the front-runner in terms of signatures. 14,500 people signed the petition that demanded that Luxembourgish become an official language in Luxembourg. Schank recalled the petition and the interest it garnered: "I believe that was only time that the parliamentary server broke down because so many people wanted to sign the petition."
A petition demanding more support for handicapped children, especially in private schools, was signed about 13,000 times. Another petition supporting the upkeep of churches was signed about 12,000 times.
Some petitions actually brought about political change when it comes to languages, animal welfare, and health.
One prominent petition asked for the introduction of a "tiers payant" system, which would mean that patients don't have to pay doctors the full amount of their treatment before getting it reimbursed by the national health service. Instead, patients only need to cover the remaining costs. The petition and subsequent parliamentary debate brought in a lot of criticism from Luxembourg's doctors' association, but the issue found its way into many election programmes and eventually even into the coalition agreement.
Marco Schank also remarked that the media plays a role in how many signatures some petitions get. The more an issue is covered, the more people take the time to sign it.
Some minor changes to the system were introduced over the past couple of years. Apart from online signatures, parliament also accepts petitions on paper. Public debates have been opened up and the petitioners are asked whether they were satisfied with the proceedings.
The threshold of 4,500 signatures seemed very high when the system was first introduced, but now that parliament also allows signatures on paper, the threshold is less unattainable.
"We discussed the matter two to three times, but we decided on keeping the threshold at 4,500 signatures for now", Schank stated.
This doesn't mean that the threshold could not be changed at some point in the future.
