For RTL's summer interview, Déi Lénk's (The Left) Carole Thoma chose a spot to which she has strong ties: d'Haard in Dudelange. As a Dudelange local, it was quickly clear that the conversation should take place in her hometown. In the current heat, the forest was one of the more pleasant options, all the more since there is little shade to be found in the centre of Dudelange itself.
For the holidays, the politician, who works as an engineer in Bonnevoie, spends most of her time at home. In September, she is heading to Tuscany with her family for a week. For the party spokesperson, a holiday means, above all, "lying down, reading and getting away from the stress of everyday life a little".
When it comes to picking a book, she tends to alternate between fiction and political theory. She has just finished "Yellowface" by R. F. Kuang. Next on the reading list is Rosa Luxemburg.
Politically, Thoma sees rising social inequality as a growing problem. The social democratic parties in Europe, which have had the chance to change things over the past 10 or 15 years, must also shoulder some of the blame, according to Thoma. Even if the trajectory in Luxembourg is not solely the Luxembourg Socialist Worker's Party's (LSAP) doing, she pointed out, poverty has risen and the social gap has continued to widen. Social democratic parties, in her view, have accepted too many compromises in the past.
Compromises on the index, however, are out of the question for the trade unionist. There is regular talk of capping the index, on the grounds that people with a bigger salary benefit more from it than those close to the minimum wage. According to Thoma, however, a cap would above all benefit large companies, which would have to pay out less in salaries and could therefore go on saving on their staff bill. On top of that, the automaticity of the system itself would then be called into question. Her position, she said, is clear: "Hands off the index."
The engineer also has a very specific demand when it comes to housing. If she could push through a single measure tomorrow, it would be a rent cap. The situation on the rental market, she said, is no longer acceptable. More and more people are dependent on rented accommodation at a time when rents are constantly rising. A consistent rent cap, in her view, would be a first concrete step in tackling the housing crisis.
The rise of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Germany, meanwhile, poses a broader question for left-wing parties, namely how far one is prepared to go in order to prevent a far-right government. Looking to next month's elections in Saxony-Anhalt, Thoma does not rule out cooperation between parties that are ideologically far apart.
Sometimes, she said, one has to take steps that one would not normally take. Even so, establishing a left-wing government cannot become an end in itself. People, she added, have to see concretely that they are better off afterwards and that social improvements are being delivered. Otherwise, trust in the left-wing parties would also evaporate.
For the home turf, Thoma does not categorically rule out cooperation with a conservative party such as the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) in a similarly extreme situation. She said she hoped Luxembourg would never end up in a position in which a far-right party was polling around 40%. Should the country nevertheless find itself in such a scenario, she added, everyone would have to take their share of responsibility.
As for Thoma's own political future, under The Left's rotation principle, she could return to the Chamber one day. That, she said, was something she would see about in due course. She had not gone into politics with the specific aim of holding a mandate. As an employee, she also sees a structural problem. With only 20 hours of political leave, she said, it would be difficult to combine a Chamber mandate with a regular job, and parliament would end up not being sufficiently representative of society.
Even though politics takes up a great deal of space, another ambition still lingers. Thoma has wanted to write a book since childhood. Perhaps, she said, that too may come her way someday.
