Majority of Luxembourgers support voting rights for foreigners, survey shows

A majority of Luxembourg nationals believe voting rights should be extended to foreign citizens living in the country, according to a survey to mark the tenth anniversary of the referendum which saw the proposal widely defeated.

58% of Luxembourg nationals support the extension of voting rights, the ILRES poll commissioned by the Association de Soutien aux Travailleurs Immigrés (ASTI), an association which assists immigrant workers, found.

The June 2015 referendum saw four out of five Luxembourg voters reject a proposal to extend voting rights to foreigners, who account for half of the country’s population and around 70% in the capital.

The proposal to extend voting rights was supported by two-thirds of respondents overall – including both Luxembourgish and foreign nationals – according to the latest poll published on Monday. The survey assumed that voting rights would also include the right to stand for election.

A quarter of all respondents and 34% of Luxembourgish citizens surveyed said they did not want to see foreign nationals allowed to vote or stand for election. Those who were unsure or chose not to answer amounted to 9% and 7% respectively.

There was no significant difference in responses across different age groups, though women were more likely to support the idea than men.

Among respondents who can currently vote, the idea of voting rights for non-citizens was most popular among supporters of the Greens (87%) and the Pirates (77%) and least popular among supporters of the ADR (22%) and CSV (55%).

Lowering the voting age

In the other part of the survey, 46% of respondents agreed that voting rights should be extended to 16 and 17-year-olds.

40% of respondents would not lower the age of suffrage, however, and a further 14% were either unsure or chose not to reply to the question.

The replies were very similar from both Luxembourgish voters and foreign nationals alike; though slightly more of the latter group were undecided.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, voting rights for over-16s was most popular among respondents aged 16-24 (59%) and least supported by those aged over 65 (33%).

The online poll, held in April, tracked the opinions of 1,012 people in Luxembourg aged 16 and over, including 574 who currently have the right to vote.

The majority of those interviewed held Luxembourgish nationality – 41.5% of respondents were only citizens of Luxembourg and 11% were dual citizens. The remainder were foreign nationals, with almost one in seven (13.8%) Portuguese citizens.

The 2015 referendum saw over 80% vote against letting 16 and 17-year-olds vote, while 78% rejected the extension of voting rights to foreign nationals. Turnout in the referendum a decade ago was just under 87%.