The Grand Oral of the OGBL

The Maison du Peuple in Esch-sur-Alzette was packed on September 13th for the OGBL’s Grand Oral. Less than three weeks before the legislative elections, the OGBL organized a round table with representatives of eight political parties. A unique opportunity to hear what these different parties have to say to the world of work. And it’s fair to say that the evening lived up to its promise.

The atmosphere was often electric, Georges Engel (Minister of Labor – LSAP), Marc Spautz (Deputy and former Minister – CSV), Pim Knaff (Deputy and Alderman of Esch – DP) and Meris Sehovic (Alderman of Esch and leading candidate – déi Gréng), Carole Thoma (spokeswoman and head of the southern list – déi Lénk), Bruno Da Silva (candidate in the south – Pirate Party), Ali Ruckert (president of the KPL) and Frank Engel (president and founder of FOKUS) spoke for over an hour and a half.

The round table discussion revolved around five general topics: the index, taxation, health policy, shorter working time and the pension system. Each topic was opened by a question to the eight candidates, to which they had to respond simultaneously by raising a poster with their answers, before the discussion went deeper. “Can your party guarantee that the index will not be manipulated or capped in any way?”, “Is your party in favor of a permanent reindexation of the tax scale?”, “Are you in favor of private medical practices being able to operate MRI scanners?”, “Are you in favor of a general reduction in working hours without loss of pay?”, “When is the pension wall due?” Certainly a highlight of the evening.

A round table discussion that undoubtedly allowed us to find out a little more about what these eight political parties are proposing.

The roundtable was filmed and can now be viewed on the OGBL Youtube channel in Luxemburgish and With French subtitles.