LUXEMBOURG: Luxembourg voters delivered an uncertain outcome in an election on Sunday, leaving the liberal-led coalition with just enough seats to stay in government and the traditionally dominant centre-right also capable of returning to power. Opinion polls had indicated that the Christian Social People's Party (CSV) - which was led for 19 years by EU chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker - would end Xavier Bettel's five years as prime minister of a three-party coalition. However, the CSV could fall short of an outright majority in the 60-seat chamber, meaning its leader Claude Wiseler would need to find an ally from one of the three governing parties - Bettel’s Democratic Party, the Socialist Worker’s Party or the Greens. “The coalition has done better than the polls and has been confirmed.”

Bettel took on the country’s top job in 2013 after a spying scandal involving the secret service toppled the government led by the Jean-Claude Juncker, now the European Commission president. Whatever the future government, the foreign policy of the European Union's wealthiest but second-smallest state is unlikely to change much. To avoid isolation in the EU, Luxembourg has been adapting its economic model, recently ending bank secrecy under pressure from bigger neighbours which have called it a centre for tax avoidance. Financial services is the largest sector in the Grand Duchy’s economy, which was once dominated by steel. Unlike some neighbours, where real or feared migration has boosted anti-immigrant parties, the far right has made no inroads in Luxembourg. Read more: Luxembourg installs Bettel, Juncker out

Luxembourger identity

Voting is mandatory for Luxembourgers, but they account for only 52 percent of the country's population.
Voters in Luxembourg go to the polls for the 24th general election.