Alternative Democratic Reform Party - Ideology

Ideology

The party was founded as a single-issue party, to introduce equality between private and public sector pensions. The focus on pension reform allowed it to make it the core campaign issue of all five elections in the first ten years of its formation. By 1998, the party had forced the government to accede almost all of its demands. However, this success has not thwarted the ADR, and it has diversified its programme to cover all aspects of public policy.

The party is a supporter of economic liberalism, having positioned itself to fill a void left by the Democratic Party. The party is critical of public sector waste and the 'elitist' nature of public spending projects. The ADR is socially conservative. It is opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The party places great importance on promoting the Luxembourgish language, and its electoral success in the 1999 election pushed the CSV-DP government to make knowledge of it a criterion for naturalisation. It is opposed to multiple citizenship.

The party is marked out from the other parties by being Eurosceptic, sharing this position with only the far left, and being the country's most sovereigntist party. The leadership had supported the proposed European Constitution, endorsing it in the 2004 European election, before changing its position in the spring of 2005 under pressure from party members. In its criticism of the EU, the party puts emphasis on the democratic deficit and transparency. However, in heavily pro-European Luxembourg, the ADR has always fared worse in European elections than on national elections, which are held on the same day.