15 December 2025

Question posed by Tom Weidig

Residents frequently contact us to complain that it is getting harder to find a parking space on their street or in their neighbourhood. This is an especially big problem for people with reduced mobility and people who need to transport heavy purchases to their home.

• In other countries, there are often parking spaces reserved for people who live in the neighbourhood ("Anrainerparken"). Would the College of Aldermen be willing to consider introducing this system in Luxembourg City?
• Regarding the lack of parking spaces, it has been brought to our attention that there are people who purchase a parking ticket through the Indigo Neo app, and then when the time on that ticket expires, they purchase another one online without moving their vehicle. Is there a way for the municipal workers to determine if drivers are doing this? Are there plans to change the Indigo Neo app to prevent people from doing this?

Response provided by Alderman Patrick Goldschmidt

The Luxembourg Traffic Code does not authorise the creation of parking spaces reserved for local residents. Exceptions apply only to certain categories of road users: article 5 of the Traffic Code stipulates that "any reservation of parking spaces on streets and public squares is prohibited, except for the categories of road users expressly listed by the law – specifically, the Grand Ducal Police, official vehicles of foreign diplomatic representations, and vehicles used to transport people with disabilities." As long as this stipulation appears in the Traffic Code, it is impossible to create parking spaces reserved for local residents.

As for the Indigo Neo app, there is a misconception that motorists must move their vehicle when the parking period expires if they want to continue parking in the zone in question. According to the Traffic Code, motorists are only required to move their vehicle if parked in a free-parking zone. In paid-parking zones, motorists do not need to move their vehicle. The parking period may be extended there by making a new payment to the meter or through the Indigo Neo app. I personally feel that the option of being able to extend the parking period through the app from the office is not ideal, but because the Traffic Code allows it, we cannot do anything about it.

Question posed by Tom Weidig

Luxembourgish Language Day was held on 26 September 2025. According to the Ministry of Culture (<em>Ministère de la Culture</em>), the purpose of this day is to encourage people to speak Luxembourgish, regardless of level of proficiency. People should not be afraid to speak Luxembourgish, and it is important to listen to other people speaking it. As the motto goes, "Speak up – Luxembourgish connects." The day for our national language should also provide us with more opportunities to celebrate and embrace our language. As far as I know, the City of Luxembourg did not participate in this first Luxembourgish Language Day.

On 27 November, we marked the 20^th anniversary of QuattroPole. This is an important initiative that aims to deepen the ties between the four major cities in the Greater Region – Metz, Saarbrücken, Trier and Luxembourg City – as well as to embrace our diversity in the Greater Region. However, I noticed that the text on the QuattroPole posters is in German for the German cities and in French for Metz. For our city, it was also French that was chosen rather than Luxembourgish. Yet it would be a nice idea to introduce our neighbours to our language.

• Is it true that the City of Luxembourg did not participate in this first Luxembourgish Language Day?
• Does the City intend to organise something for 2026? Does the College of Aldermen already have any ideas about this?
• Are there plans to give more importance to our language within QuattroPole – for example, on the posters – while preserving German and French as the languages of communication?

Response provided by Alderman Maurice Bauer

The City did not participate in the first Luxembourgish Language Day because we received the information too late for our departments to be able to prepare anything. The City will participate in the 2026 event. Our departments plan to give more visibility to the City's wealth of offerings when it comes to Luxembourgish.

I would like to thank Councillor Weidig for his praise of the QuattroPole network. The bylaws of QuattroPole e.V. stipulate that "the association's meetings shall be held in French and/or German. The working documents shall be drafted in German and French and submitted simultaneously in both languages. No language shall take precedence over the other." As you can see, Luxembourgish is not mentioned in the bylaws. Nevertheless, we are trying to make Luxembourgish something of a priority within QuattroPole. For example, there is the publication "Do you speak Greater Region? – A brief communication guide", which is written in the three languages. The New Year's cards sent by the entities of the <em>Maison de la Grande Région</em> (Greater Region House) are also written in the three languages. We are currently thinking about other initiatives for the 2026 Luxembourgish Language Day.

Question posed by Maxime Miltgen

An article published in Tageblatt on 10 December 2025 revealed alarming living conditions in several "Cafészëmmeren" (café rooms) located above Café Lakert: two people are living there without electricity, heating or hot water. These conditions plainly contravene the Law of 20 December 2019 concerning the hygiene, health, safety and liveability criteria for housing and rooms rented out or made available for residential use (<em>Loi relative aux critères de salubrité, d'hygiène, de sécurité et d'habitabilité des logements et chambres donnés en location ou mis à disposition à des fins d'habitation</em>).

According to an article in Luxemburger Wort on 11 December 2025, the City has allegedly been aware of this situation for almost a year. We applaud Alderwoman Cahen's forceful denunciation of the unacceptable conditions in which some tenants are living when she said, "During inspections, we regularly find very concerning situations. It is unacceptable that tenants are forced to live like cattle. I am committed to ensuring that the penalties are tightened." However, we regret that Alderwoman Cahen is hiding behind the argument that the penalties are supposedly inadequate even though the Law of 20 December 2019 already stipulates a fine of between €251 and €125,000 and/or a prison sentence of between eight days and five years – in other words, penalties that are already exceptionally harsh. The level of penalties therefore cannot justify the lack of involvement by the City, which up until now has done nothing more than issue warnings.

• Why hasn't the City ordered the closure of the "Cafészëmmer" located above Café Lakert even though the facts described plainly violate article 2 of the Law of 20 December 2019, and even though the deadlines given to the building owner and/or operator to comply with the legal provisions have not been met?
• What are the criteria, deadlines and procedures applied by the municipal departments regarding intervention when housing is unsanitary? Have these procedures been followed in this specific case? If not, why not?
• What emergency measures does the City plan to implement to guarantee the safety, health and dignity of people who are still being forced to live in such conditions?

Response provided by Alderwoman Corinne Cahen

The case described by Councilwoman Miltgen has generated a lot of interest and anxiety among the public in recent days. I am not in any way trying to hide behind the legal provisions – quite the contrary, in fact. Last week, I immediately did what was needed so that the man who is still living in one of the rooms above the café in question could get his electricity reconnected.

The situation is not so simple. Now that electrical power has been restored, this resident is completely satisfied again and does not want to move. I have been in touch with his lawyer and with Enovos. The situation is somewhat complicated because the operator, who rents the rooms and who owes a large amount of money to Enovos and the building owner, has vanished. The operator is a limited liability company (SARL). I have reached an agreement with Enovos, which has been very flexible, to the effect that the City or <em>Office social</em> (Social Welfare Office) will pay the electricity costs. The City has also repaired the electricity meter because it was not registered in the subtenant's name but rather in the name of the missing operator.

We ran into a similar problem with the "Siechenhaff" café, whose operator went bankrupt, but where the brasserie in question took over the electricity costs. So this is not an isolated case.

Representatives from the City's <em>Service Logement</em> (Housing Department) had already inspected the "Cafészëmmeren" in question and written a formal notice saying that the rules must be followed. In such cases, the tenants in question still are not leaving their accommodations immediately. There are several reasons for this: they often don't want to; they can do so only if their safety is not guaranteed; and we then need to find a place that can accommodate these people. As a last resort, the people in question are housed in a hotel, as was the case last year for two families with children who were living in unsanitary housing near <em>Route d'Esch</em>.

In this specific case, we are in touch with the resident in question and his lawyer. We will offer him other solutions because even if he wants to keep living there for now, he will need to leave the accommodation at some point. The trial between the brasserie and the operator will be on the court's docket in January 2026.

I would like to take this opportunity to stress that it is unacceptable that some building owners avoid their responsibilities and simply cut off the electricity and water supply when they want to get rid of a tenant – because this seems easier to them than legal proceedings, which are often long – and that people then say that it is up to the City to rehouse the tenants elsewhere. This could have a snowball effect. That is why I emphasised last Friday [12 December] in an interview with Radio 100.7 that the statutory penalties must be enforced. I also stressed that "property ownership comes with responsabilities". It is unacceptable that we have dozens or even hundreds of café rooms that are being sublet while the owners act as if it has nothing to do with them – leaving the public authorities to subsequently step in just because the owners are not taking their responsibilities seriously. In any case, the City is taking on its responsibilities. We are constantly rehousing people who find themselves in situations like these. Just last Friday this was the case for two families.

But what happens next? The two families who left the <em>Route d'Esch</em> housing last year lost their case against the owner. This means that the City must take care of their housing, and this housing is generally not temporary, but permanent, because the only possible temporary solution would be accommodation in a shelter. I firmly believe that the best solution is for the City to purchase more housing – apartments, studio apartments, furnished rooms – and manage it itself. In this specific case, we will also ensure that the person in question receives suitable housing.

Urgent question posed by Nicolas Back

An incident occurred last weekend in relation to the district heating network. According to information reported by the press, the Kirchberg and Bonnevoie districts were affected. The cause cited was said to be a water leak on <em>Rue des Muguets</em>. As far as we know, the Bonnevoie and Kirchberg district heating networks are not connected to each other, and that raises questions about the cause of the outage in the Bonnevoie network. Furthermore, it seems that neither the City of Luxembourg nor the network operator communicated proactively, so many customers did not receive any information on the situation or the solution to the problem.

• Which urban heating networks were affected, and what were the exact causes of these disruptions?
• Were incidents that could have caused these problems observed in the network in recent days or weeks, and would it have been possible to avoid these problems?
• How many customers were left without heating, and for how long?
• What communication measures did the City and the operator implement? Does the College of Aldermen believe that notifying users more proactively would have been appropriate, or even necessary?

Response provided by Mayor Lydie Polfer

Like other City representatives, I was contacted yesterday [Sunday] about this incident. Neither the Emergency Services Call Centre (<em>Central des secours d'urgence</em> – CSU-112) nor the repair service of the City's <em>Service Eaux</em> (Water Department) was called. I received full information later in the evening and this morning: the incident was related to the Kirchberg cogeneration plant, which LuxEnergie has been operating since 2001. The contract stipulates that LuxEnergie must maintain and keep the plant running 24/7. According to the most recent information I received, which is from 13:37 today, only the Kirchberg cogeneration system was affected. There are nine urban heating networks in the city, and as Councillor Back noted correctly, they are not interconnected. I therefore cannot say whether other districts also experienced problems.

Three weeks ago, LuxEnergie observed that 20 cubic metres of water were being lost per day, and since then it had been trying to locate the leak. The leak was found on Saturday morning: a pipe on <em>Rue des Muguets</em> was damaged. LuxEnergie contacted its usual construction company and sent it to the site to make the repair. The work turned out to be more complex than expected, so it took longer than it usually does to fix a leak. It took until Sunday afternoon for everything to be back working properly.

The critical infrastructure facilities – namely, the Rehazenter (Centre for functional rehabilitation and movement re-education) and the Kirchberg Hospital – were notified about the incident overnight from Saturday to Sunday. Fifty people contacted LuxEnergie to report the problem. In all, 131 connections on 21 streets were affected.

It would now be a good idea to analyse whether the problem could have been resolved differently, because generally a leak can be repaired much more quickly.