Luxembourg's Ministry of State has announced the decision of Prime Minister Xavier Bettel to declare admissible the recent request for a referendum on the revision of the Constitution of Luxembourg.
Based on the fact that the request met the requirements set by the amended law of 4 February 2005 relating to national referenda, the Prime Minister deemed admissible the request for the organisation of a referendum on the proposed revision of Chapters I, II, III, V, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI and XII of the Constitution, presented by an initiative committee and received on 4 February 2022.
The next steps in this procedure are as follows: publication of a communication in the Official Journal of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg; the municipalities will inform voters of this request; the collection of signatures will begin no later than fifteen days after the date of publication of the Prime Minister's communication in the Official Journal.
To support the request for a referendum, voters (carrying a valid identity document) must go in person to their municipality of residence and register themselves on the lists.
At the end of the period for collecting signatures, each municipality will send the result obtained to the Prime Minister who will check them and determine the total number of signatures. No later than three weeks after the end of the period for collecting signatures, the results will be communicated to the initiative committee and published in the Official Journal. These results may be contested within five days of the date of their publication by any voter before the Administrative Court.
The request is successful if it garners at least 25,000 valid signatures in the two months following the first vote on the text of constitutional revision in the Chamber of Deputies (Parliament). In this case, the referendum must be organised within six months. In the event of legislative or European elections within this period, it will be extended by six months. The referendum must be held on a Sunday or a legal holiday.
