Xavier Bettel looked back at 2019 in an interview with Caroline Mart, covering topics from data protection to climate change in a year which was not always easy.
Asked whether he is relieved to see the back of 2019, Bettel admitted that the year had not been an easy one. Felix Braz's heart attack had come a year after the government lost one of its members, the Green's Camille Gira, who collapsed in the Chamber of Deputies. The Bettel-Schneider-Braz dynamic is to become Bettel-Kersch-Bausch. Last week, the LSAP presented their new team to replace current Deputy Prime Minister Etienne Schneider, who will step down from his three ministerial roles in February.
The Greens were forced to change their government team a few months ago after Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Félix Braz suffered a heart attack on 22 August - one of the most difficult moments of 2019 for Bettel, who rushed to his colleague's side alongside Braz' daughter. He described waiting to hear information on Braz's condition as one of his worst moments of the year, and said it was a wonder that Braz is now recovering well.
Despite the shuffle in government positions, Bettel does not expect many changes to take place with his new deputy prime ministers, as the coalition agreement will still take precedence.
One thing which is unlikely to change is the constitution. Bettel expressed his disappointment that the antiquated constitution could only be reformed point by point without a public vote. On the topic of referendums, the Prime Minister did acknowledge the previous referendum of 2015 was not sufficiently prepared.
One topic which the opposition enforced in the last year was climate change. The budget speech drew strong criticism from opposing MPs, who said it did not contain enough information on climate policies.
However, Bettel told RTL the government had ambitious goals for environmental improvements, particularly in light of predictions for the world's condition in 20 or 30 years. He described society as being in a state of auto-destruction and said it was time to apply the handbrake and that the government would now put into motion a number of policies designed to improve the state of matters in Luxembourg.
