Luxembourg

Abstract

The origins of Luxembourg’s Socialist Party go back to 1896, when the first politicians claiming socialist ideals were elected to the Chamber of Deputies. At that time, the emerging movement defined itself as democrat and not as socialist or social democrat, emphasizing its attachment to the values of modern democracy (thus rejecting the path of revolutionary socialism) and its willingness to break with the electoral franchise in force in Luxembourg until 1919. In 1902, the Social Democrat party was officially founded but made little initial progress because of this qualified franchise. Its early leaders were mostly anti-clerical middle-class professionals who were rather impermeable to the contemporary ideological debates going on in France or Germany. After 1918, trade union leaders reinforced the workers’ claims within the party. This worker influence would become increasingly important in the 1920s as the party decided to become the ‘worker party’ aiming at organizing in the first place the social and political interests of the workers and consequently changed its name into the Worker Party (Arbeiterpartei Luxemburg) in 1924. Show more