List of prime ministers of Luxembourg


The Prime Minister of Luxembourg is the head of government in Luxembourg. His official residence and office is in the Hôtel de Bourgogne at 4 rue de la Congrégation in the city of Luxembourg.
Since 1989, the title of Prime Minister has been an official one, although the head of the government had been unofficially known by that name for some time. Between 1857 and 1989, the Prime Minister was styled the President of the Government, with the exception of the 25-day premiership of Mathias Mongenast. Before 1857, the Prime Minister was the President of the Council. In addition to these titles, the Prime Minister uses the title Minister of State, although this is usually relegated to a secondary title.
This is a list of Prime Ministers and governments since the post was founded, in 1848. In larger font are the dates of the Prime Ministers entering and leaving office. The smaller dates, during the respective premierships, are those of the Prime Ministers' governments. Luxembourg has a collegial governmental system; often, the government will present its resignation, only for the successor government to include many, if not most, of the previous ministers serving under the same Prime Minister. Each of the smaller dates reflects a change in the government without a change of Prime Minister.
The annual salary of the Prime Minister is 250,000 EUR.

The era of independents (1848–1918)

From the promulgation of the first constitution, in 1848, until the early twentieth century, Luxembourgish politics was dominated by independent politicians and statesmen. The prerogative powers of the Grand Duke remained undiluted, and, as such, the monarch actively chose and personally appointed the Prime Minister. As a result, the Prime Minister was often a moderate, without any strong affiliation to either of the two major ideological factions in the Chamber of Deputies: the secularist liberals and the Catholic conservatives.
In the early twentieth century, the emergence of socialism as a third force in Luxembourgish politics ended the dominance of independents, and further politicised the government of the country. This did not affect the Prime Minister's position until 1915, when the long-serving Paul Eyschen died in office. His death created a struggle for power between the main factions, leading to the establishment of the formalised party system.

Prime ministers of [Grand Duchy of Luxembourg] from 1815 to 1890

The Kingdom of the Netherlands shared the same monarchs with the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg from 1815 to 1890. The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has had its own monarchs since 1890.

Prime ministers of [Grand Duchy of Luxembourg] since 1890


ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20
AlignBars = late
Colors =
id:ind value:rgb
id:gray1 value:gray
id:gray2 value:gray
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1848 till:01/01/1919
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1850
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1848
BarData =
barset:PM
PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
barset:PM
from: 01/08/1848 till: 06/12/1848 color:ind text:"De la Fontaine" fontsize:10
from: 06/12/1848 till: 23/09/1853 color:ind text:"Willmar" fontsize:10
from: 23/09/1853 till: 26/09/1860 color:ind text:"Simons" fontsize:10
from: 26/09/1860 till: 03/12/1867 color:ind text:"De Tornaco" fontsize:10
from: 03/12/1867 till: 26/12/1874 color:ind text:"Servais" fontsize:10
from: 26/12/1874 till: 20/02/1885 color:ind text:"Blochausen" fontsize:10
from: 20/02/1885 till: 22/09/1888 color:ind text:"Thilges" fontsize:10
from: 22/09/1888 till: 11/10/1915 color:ind text:"Eyschen" fontsize:10
from: 12/10/1915 till: 06/11/1915 color:ind text:"Mongenast" fontsize:10
from: 06/11/1915 till: 24/02/1916 color:ind text:"Loutsch" fontsize:10
from: 24/02/1916 till: 19/06/1917 color:ind text:"Thorn" fontsize:10
from: 19/06/1917 till: 28/09/1918 color:ind text:"Kauffman" fontsize:10

The party system (1918–present)

In 1918, towards the end of the First World War, a new Chamber of Deputies was elected with the explicit ambition of reviewing the constitution. To this end, formalised parties were formed by the main political blocs, so as to increase their bargaining power in the negotiations. The revisions to the constitution introduced universal suffrage and compulsory voting, adopted proportional representation, and limited the sovereignty of the monarch.
Since the foundation of the party system, only one cabinet has not included members of more than one party. Most of the time, governments are grand coalitions of the two largest parties, no matter their ideology; this has made Luxembourg one of the most stable democracies in the world. Two cabinets included members of every party represented in the Chamber of Deputies.
During the occupation of Luxembourg by Nazi Germany, Luxembourg was governed by a Nazi Party official, Gustav Simon. Pierre Dupong continued to lead the government in exile in the United Kingdom until the liberation of Luxembourg in December 1944, whereupon the constitutional Luxembourg government returned to the Grand Duchy. Thus, although Luxembourg was formally annexed on 30 August 1942, the Prime Minister of the government in exile, Pierre Dupong, is assumed to have remained Prime Minister throughout.

Prime ministers of [Grand Duchy of Luxembourg] since 1918

Political Party:

ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:50 right:130 left:20
AlignBars = late
Colors =
id:CSV value:rgb legend: CSV
id:DP value:rgb legend: DP
id:PD value:rgb legend: PD
id:PNI value:rgb legend: PNI
id:gray1 value:gray
id:gray2 value:gray
DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy
Period = from:01/01/1918 till:15/11/2020
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:gray1 unit:year increment:5 start:1920
ScaleMinor = gridcolor:gray2 unit:year increment:1 start:1918
Legend = columns:4 left:150 top:24 columnwidth:100
TextData =
pos: textcolor:black fontsize:M
text:"Political parties:"
BarData =
bar:Reuter
bar:Prum
bar:Bech
bar:Dupong
bar:Frieden
bar:Werner
bar:Thorn
bar:Santer
bar:Juncker
bar:Bettel
PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
bar:Reuter
from: 28/09/1918 till: 20/03/1925 color:PD text:"Reuter" fontsize:10
bar:Prum
from: 20/03/1925 till: 16/07/1926 color:PNI text:"Prüm" fontsize:10
bar:Bech
from: 16/07/1926 till: 05/11/1937 color:PD text:"Bech" fontsize:10
from: 29/12/1953 till: 29/03/1958 color:CSV text:"Bech" fontsize:10
bar:Dupong
from: 05/11/1937 till: 23/11/1944 color:PD
from: 23/11/1944 till: 29/12/1953 color:CSV text:"Dupong" fontsize:10
bar:Frieden
from: 29/03/1958 till: 23/02/1959 color:CSV text:"Frieden" fontsize:10
bar:Werner
from: 02/03/1959 till: 15/06/1974 color:CSV
from: 16/07/1979 till: 20/07/1984 color:CSV text:"Werner" fontsize:10
bar:Thorn
from: 15/06/1974 till: 16/07/1979 color:DP text:"Thorn" fontsize:10
bar:Santer
from: 20/07/1984 till: 26/01/1995 color:CSV text:"Santer" fontsize:10
bar:Juncker
from: 26/01/1995 till: 04/12/2013 color:CSV text:"Juncker" fontsize:10
bar:Bettel
from: 04/12/2013 till: end color:DP text:"Bettel" fontsize:10