Europe’s longest-serving leader Jean-Claude Juncker risked losing power in Luxembourg as three rival parties were set to begin negotiations on Tuesday to form a coalition without him. The heads of the Liberal and Socialist parties said a day after parliamentary elections they would open talks with the Green party, a move that could see Juncker’s centre-right Christian Social People’s party (CSV) ousted, despite winning the largest share of the vote. The 40-year-old head of the Liberal Party, Luxembourg city mayor Xavier Bettel, told journalists he had been given a “mandate” to open talks on forming an unprecedented coalition of the three parties. “We need different policies to pull the country out of crisis,” he said.
Together the three parties, due to begin formal negotations on Tuesday afternoon, won 32 seats in the small country’s 60-seat parliament.
Veteran eurozone dealmaker Juncker’s party lost three seats in Sunday’s poll, leaving it with 23 lawmakers.
But Juncker had been widely expected to form a new government that would take him into a remarkable third decade in power. He has already been prime minister for 18 years.
The election had been brought forward by seven months after the discovery of misconduct in Luxembourg’s secret services.
Full Article: Luxembourg parties eye coalition without Juncker – FRANCE 24.
