“Et war awer schwéier, sou laang sëtzen ze bleiwen,” says a slightly older lady after Xavier Bettel, figurehead of the Democratic Party, ends his rather short speech and calls for a “standoff”. “Give the Tageblatt a lot of ideas,” says a DP party employee. “No, it was good,” the lady replies hastily before sneaking away towards the Buvette.
The press was actually not presented with any new ideas at the DP national congress on Sunday at the Center Atert in Bertrange. It was the expected parade of party leaders: one after the other, Secretary General and Minister of Culture Eric Thill, JDL President Lou Linster, DP MEP Charel Goerens, party President Carole Hartmann and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel stepped up to the microphone. Despite his physical presence, parliamentary group leader Gilles Baum saved himself from going to the microphone in the darkened hall with a video message, which, with its huge screen and light accents in DP blue, gave more the impression of a cinema than a congress.
