List of Prime Ministers of Luxembourg

The Prime Minister of Luxembourg is the head of government in Luxembourg.

This is a list of Prime Ministers and governments since the post was founded, in 1848. In larger font are the dates of the Prime Ministers entering and leaving office. The smaller dates, during the respective premierships, are those of the Prime Ministers' governments. Luxembourg has a collegial governmental system; often, the government will present its resignation, only for the successor government to include many, if not most, of the previous ministers serving under the same Prime Minister. Each of the smaller dates reflects a change in the government without a change of Prime Minister.

Since 1989, the title of "Prime Minister" has been an official one, [Thewes (2003), p.209] although the head of the government had been unofficially known by that name for some time. Between 1857 and 1989, the Prime Minister went by the name of the "President of the Government", [Thewes (2003), p.21] with the exception of the 25-day premiership of Mathias Mongenast. [Thewes (2003), p.65] Before 1857, the Prime Minister was the "President of the Council". In addition to these titles, the Prime Minister uses the title "Minister of State", although this is usually relegated to a secondary title.

The era of independents

From the promulgation of the first constitution, in 1848, until the early twentieth century, Luxembourgian politics was dominated by independent politicians and statesmen. [Thewes (2003), p.8] The prerogative powers of the Grand Duke remained undiluted, and, as such, the monarch actively chose and personally appointed the Prime Minister. As a result, the Prime Minister was often a moderate, without any strong affiliation to either of the two major ideological factions in the Chamber of Deputies: the secularist liberals and the Catholic conservatives.

In the early twentieth century, the emergence of socialism as a third force in Luxembourgian politics ended the dominance of independents, and further politicised the government of the country. [Thewes (2003), p.8] This did not affect the Prime Minister's position until 1915, when the long-serving Paul Eyschen died in office. His death created a struggle for power between the main factions, leading to the establishment of the formalised party system. [Thewes (2003), p.64]

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The party system

In 1918, towards the end of the First World War, a new Chamber of Deputies was elected with the explicit ambition of reviewing the constitution. [Thewes (2003), p.76] To this end, formalised parties were formed by the main political blocs, so as to increase their bargaining power in the negotiations. The revisions to the constitution introduced universal suffrage and compulsory voting, adopted proportional representation, and limited the sovereignty of the monarch.

Since the foundation of the party system, only one cabinet (between 1921 and 1925) has not included members of more than one party. Most of the time, governments are grand coalitions of the two largest parties, no matter their ideology; this has made Luxembourg one of the most stable democracies in the world. [cite web | url = http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri.nsf/fr/gr106260f.html | title = Luxembourg Country Commercial Guide FY 2003: Political Environment | accessdate = 2006-06-28 | last = Weston | first = Steve | date = 2003-03-02] Two cabinets (between 1945 and 1947) included members of every party represented in the Chamber of Deputies.

During the occupation of Luxembourg by Nazi Germany, Luxembourg was governed by a Nazi Party official, Gustav Simon. Pierre Dupong continued to lead the government in exile in the United Kingdom until the liberation of Luxembourg in December 1944, whereupon the constitutional Luxembourg government returned to the Grand Duchy. Thus, although Luxembourg was formally annexed on 30 August 1942, the Prime Minister of the government in exile, Pierre Dupong, is assumed to have remained Prime Minister throughout.

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ee also

* List of Grand Dukes of Luxembourg
* List of Presidents of the Council of State of Luxembourg

* Lists of incumbents

Footnotes

References

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