Organising social progress was the theme of The Left's (déi Lénk) national congress in Mamer on Sunday, where the party once again strongly criticised the government's policies on housing, pensions, the minimum wage, and the planned tax reform.
The Left accused the government of following the employers' agenda on all major social issues, from the housing crisis and pensions to wages and taxation.
Speaking about housing policy, party spokesperson Carole Thoma questioned where the long-overdue rent cap was, where the strategy to fight land speculation in Luxembourg was, and when the government would finally recognise housing as a fundamental right.
MP Marc Baum said in his speech, that within two years, The Left had developed into a driving force of the opposition. The party was now a political force capable of influencing debate and bringing about change, he argued.
According to Baum, this had been shown last year when thousands of people took to the streets to protest against social cutbacks. Together with the trade unions, the party had helped organise that resistance.
Baum said one of the key lessons of the past year was that the worst-case scenario had not materialised because people had pushed back. He argued that The Left had played an active role in organising opposition to the government's social policies.
Now, Thoma said, the party must not ease up, and should help mobilise as many people as possible for Labour Day on 1 May.
Thoma said PM Luc Frieden would be watching very closely to see how many people joined the trade unions on 1 May. She called on supporters to turn out in large numbers at Neimünster Abbey on Friday morning, saying they should "spoil his long weekend" by showing a strong presence.
The debate around raising the minimum wage had once again shown, according to The Left, that the government lacked backbone. Thoma argued that most businesses in Luxembourg could afford a structural increase in the minimum wage, but simply did not want to pay it.
She accused the ruling coalition formed by the Democratic Party (DP) and the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) of being so obedient to business interests that companies were once again being compensated for the next wage adjustment.
In the end, she said, workers would effectively be paying for their own wage increase.
The Left also views the planned tax reform critically. The party said it was of course positive if households were given relief, but warned that the tax cuts were not expected to be replaced by other sources of revenue, leaving money missing from the state budget.
MP David Wagner accused Finance Minister Gilles Roth of using the reform to raise his own political profile.
Wagner claimed Roth was spending around €900 million in public tax money to advance his personal political ambitions, adding that it was no secret Roth was positioning himself as a possible successor to PM Luc Frieden.
The general assessment at the congress was that the government’s poor policies were playing into déi Lénk’s hands. The party said many new members, including many young people, had joined in recent months.
