Posts in category: Politics

I am very happy that I received the confidence of my colleagues from the CSV to go to the commissions in which I absolutely wanted to participate. The following components are now part of my parliamentary work:

• Cooperation, immigration and asylum
• Family and integration
• Environment and climate
• National Education, Childhood, Youth, Higher Education and Research
• Work, employment and social security
• Petitions
• In the «regulatory commissions» I am in the «commission des comptes».
• And on an international level, I am still in the «Interrégional Parliamentary Council».

Social issues, sustainability, youth, contact with citizens, democratic participation – I’m looking forward to it!

The fact that I was asked to participate in the 2018 parliamentary elections as a candidate in the center with the CSV is a big surprise to me. Above all, it is important to us that we act as a team and stand together for our ideas. Above all, I am impressed by how many experienced and motivated people are on our list. And I am very happy that our leading candidate is Claude Wiseler, whom I have experienced in all these last months and years as extremely competent, informed, warm-hearted, humane, approachable, fair and motivated. What more could I wish for such an extremely important and new experience?! For me personally, it is important that people can rely on us, that we have drawn up a detailed, coherent and strong plan for Luxembourg, that we conduct a fair election campaign and that we respect the people and the ideas of the other parties and to appreciate know. Politics is not an end in itself, but a thing. I learned this as a way of life, and I want to live this both socially and politically. You can find more information about our plan for Luxembourg, which we worked on together and which I am also allowed to work on here: csv.lu/wahlen-2018/ And more about my own political priorities here: http://www .paulgalles.lu/politik/

On February 5, we discussed the budget in the city council. Here is my intervention, oriented towards the larger meaning and the social responsibility of a budget. Thank you, Madam Mayor, dear colleagues from the municipal and councilors! I want to say something small in 3 points:

1. more personal
2. more specifically
3. a small conclusion

1. I have immense respect for this exercise and for the people who worked a lot on it, for which I want to thank them heartily. Never in my busy life have I had the right, the duty and the responsibility to discuss and decide on so much money. Therefore, I would like to put it briefly in the context from which I, as a newcomer, experience the budget discussions. I have lived often enough in countries and places where people don’t have money or where they lack a lot of things. That changed me and my outlook on life. What particularly impresses me these days is what a great opportunity we have here in the city to fall back on such huge financial resources! And then it is obvious to me that we think about how we can protect this large favorable macro context, as Maurice Bauer and Laurent Mosar made it clear in their interventions. After all, their reflections on the financial center and the global financial situation were extremely interesting to me. Until now, I have always looked at a budget primarily from the perspective of what can be done with it. Here I see how important it is to secure it. I simply call this realpolitik. The financial means that we give to the city serve to build a context in which the people for whom we have a responsibility can develop and can live contentedly and happily. With that, we have a huge responsibility, as I see it. But this also makes you aware of the strengths and limits of a budget. Its strengths: that with these financial means we can take a lot of people’s worries away (and there can be a great, great many, to which we must remain very attentive) and that we give people the conditions so that they feel comfortable in the city. Because they like to live here. And behind the budget, for me, the big goal appears to me, maybe the big vision, hopefully not a utopia, which in the end can no longer be captured in numbers and in euros: namely, a happy coexistence, something like a big community. to be; where we experience the city as a homeland in which everyone is welcome: a city in which there are no social injustices, where the better-off also willingly and voluntarily think of those who had less chance in life. A city that motivates to commit to coexistence. And then we are suddenly at all the things that such a budget should enable, without having to spend money: every ear that listens, every hand that is extended, every smile and hello, every idea and all volunteering and all participation, etc. and so on, everything – as Fernand Wark would say – that makes life worth living. 2. To the figures in the draft budget and to the areas that particularly concern me: social affairs, youth and sport. I have read the social information from the budget function “Social Protection” with for example the budget items “Seniors”, “Intervention sociale”, “Integration” and “Youth”, and from the budget function “Housing”. I pick out a few things. At «Seniors», I assume that the «Honoraires de consultance externe» refer to a study for the telealarme and wanted to ask if I am correct with that and what exactly is being studied. The modernization of the rooms in the Konviktsgaart takes precedence; that is absolutely welcome. For “youth”: the €25,000 that was already provided for in the 2017 budget will now be invested in 2018 for the youth center at Cents. That too is absolutely welcome. We must not forget that young people are ahead of us in many ways, for example in terms of new ideas, digitization and participation (as is now clear in the framework of the youth forums, as we could read in the last City magazine), and that we do not not only a view of their future, but also a view of our common learning process and of their own current development. In the “social intervention” for the “dépenses extraordinaires” the “aménagement d’un halte de nuit provisoire” in the Eecher Strasse is provided for, and I want to inquire why it is provisional and how it will continue. It also stands out under “Integration and specific needs” the high post with €900,000 for the “centre de communication pour personnes sourdes et personnes malentendantes”, which I expressly want to highlight. In housing construction, we are at €20,753,000 for 2018. There are very nice projects there, and it is important that we continue to keep an eye on the principles of decentralization and “mixité sociale” in social and affordable housing construction. We support everything that leads to a substantial increase in this amount in the coming years and we place a very high priority on it. There are a number of adjusting screws that we can turn, such as e.g. that we are shareholders in the SNHBM, the round table on the acceleration of procedures, the cooperation with the AIS. Regarding sport: it is currently playing a very big role with the construction of the national football stadium and with the relocation of the “Service des Sports”. It is desirable that the great infrastructures continue to be accompanied by the lively promotion of the sport, as I experienced for example last Saturday in Belair at the cup finals in volleyball, which were organized by GYM Bouneweg. And we will surely allow you to make a small excursion into culture and to be happy about the fact that we are helping to pay for the new organ of the cathedral. Not only because it is a great instrument with an enormous tradition, but also because the cathedral remains a place that, regardless of religious interest, continues to represent a neuralgic center in the city. 3. My small conclusion: I am one of those who support this budget. I belong to those who especially support all further efforts in the social sector. And I am one of those who wish that we, as the city of Luxembourg, take a pioneering role in social policy and give ourselves the financial means to do so. I wish that we continue to expand our know-how here and share it with other cities and municipalities. Because I think that we should make an intelligent social policy that helps those people who are in need, and at the same time is also oriented towards the good coexistence of all of us. I thank you very much!