EUPopLink Country report - Luxembourg

List of Authors

  1. Lisa Verhasselt
Article Authors & roles Authors Peer review record Peer review Metrics
Cite

Abstract

This report examines the dynamics of populism and Euroscepticism in Luxembourg, focusing on the Alternative Democratic Reform Party (ADR) as the country’s principal right-wing populist actor. Luxembourg exhibits a stable pro-European consensus shaped by its small size, economic reliance on EU integration, and absence of organized anti-EU interest groups. Public attitudes reflect this elite-driven pro-EU stance, with high levels of attachment and optimism toward the EU. The ADR, originally a single-issue pension reform party, has evolved into a soft right-wing populist force emphasizing pragmatic critiques of EU policies rather than advocating withdrawal. Its discourse combines vertical exclusion (people vs. elites) and horizontal exclusion (people vs. migrants), while adapting to Luxembourg’s socio-economic context, particularly its highly integrated labor market and multicultural population. Mainstream parties respond adversarially to ADR initiatives when perceived as crossing political or ethical boundaries, yet occasional rhetorical adjustments suggest subtle accommodation of public concerns. Luxembourg thus illustrates a model of ‘chameleonic populism,’ where populist and Eurosceptic ideas are moderated and contextually tailored, highlighting the influence of structural and socio-political conditions on the expression of exclusionary politics in small, integrated states.

Corresponding author
Lisa Verhasselt
0000-0002-7269-4246
Grant information

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Framework Programme for Research & Innovation as part of the COST Action CA23102, as supported by the COST Association (European Cooperation in Science and Technology)

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Copyright
© 2026 Lisa Verhasselt (Corresponding Author) Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

First version published
Latest version published
Revised

Amendment

This revised version has been updated to strengthen conceptual clarity, empirical grounding, and alignment with the EUPopLink theoretical framework. The introduction now frames Luxembourg more explicitly as a least-likely case for hard Euroscepticism and radical right-wing populism, while adding nuance to the relationship between public support for the EU and the potential activation of softer Eurocritical mobilization. It also provides a more detailed description of Luxembourg’s migration and labour-market profile.

The section on populist political actors has been revised to clarify the contested classification of the ADR. It now distinguishes more explicitly between right-wing, national-conservative, far-right, and populist elements, and uses the ADR’s 2023 national election manifesto to substantiate the claim that the party expresses recurring populist discourse through anti-elite claims and appeals to popular sovereignty. The discussion of gender-related issues has also been rephrased to avoid adopting contested party terminology in the authorial voice.

The section on the populism-Euroscepticism nexus has been substantially revised using the EUPopLink distinctions between the object, intensity, consistency, and nature of Euroscepticism. It now draws on the ADR’s 2019 European election manifesto to clarify the party’s soft Euroscepticism, its “Europe of sovereign nations” position, and the populist framing of EU decision-making. The discussion of vertical and horizontal exclusion, triadic right-wing populism, and chameleonic populism has been clarified and more directly linked to the Luxembourgish case.

The section on responses to Euroscepticism now applies Meguid’s distinction between adversarial, dismissive, and accommodative mainstream-party strategies and reflects more explicitly on the tension between democratic boundary-setting and strategic partisan competition. The conclusion has been sharpened to highlight Luxembourg’s broader comparative significance. No figures, author list, data, or code have been added or revised.

Comments

Authors & roles

Lisa Verhasselt

Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg District, Luxembourg

Roles
Corresponding Author, Investigation, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing – Review & Editing
0000-0002-7269-4246

Downloads over the last 12 months:

Cited by

via Crossref

View citing articles