Hesperange

The municipality of Hesperange took part in the pilot project “Pakt vum Zesummeliewen” from the 17th January 2022 till the 26th March 2024.

A steering committee of 7 members from the local council, local associations and the Intercultural Living Together Commission has been set up to oversee the various stages of the “Pakt vum Zesummeliewen” project.

While the municipality of Hesperange is already carrying out a wide range of actions to promote intercultural living together (Reebou, Café de Babel, Hesper beweegt sech, Hoplr), a situation report has highlighted other areas of additional interest.

This situation report consists of an awareness-raising letter sent to the residents of Hesperange and an in-depth analysis carried out by our contracted partner CEFIS. These practices serve to give an indicative picture of living together within the municipality.

In Hesperange , 238 people took part in the survey, and the results were presented to the steering committee on 24 May 2022.

On 28 June 2022, at a prioritisation meeting, the steering committee chose ‘Political and citizen participation’ as the field of action for the following year, in view of the municipal elections on 11 June 2023.

A citizens' workshop was held on 19 November 2022 and around 120 participants - invited at random via personalised invitations - discussed four topics:

• Active voting rights,
• Passive voting rights, 
• Citizen participation,
• Channels and means of communication and information.

During the workshop, participants called for concrete action on youth issues, the promotion of digital platforms, the organisation of citizens' workshops and meetings with political players.

Together with our contracted partner ASTI, the living together advisors summarised the participants' suggestions and comments in a report that was presented to the steering committee.

• Political Apéro

As part of National Registration Day on 19 March 2023, the municipality of Hesperange organised a festive event to encourage non-Luxembourg residents to register to vote.

The day's programme included informal discussions between politicians and residents, entertainment for children and a meal provided by the municipality.

A question and answer session was also organised between residents and a member of each party standing in the 2023 municipal elections. A total of 800 people attended the event, and almost 400 residents registered to vote during the day.

• Political speed-dating

To raise awareness among young voters, the municipality had also planned to organise a ‘speed-dating’ event between politicians and young residents on 15 April 2023. Unfortunately, the event had to be cancelled due to limited interest from young people.

During the ‘Pakt vum Zesummeliewen’ pilot phase, the evaluation was based mainly on an informal approach, which served as a basis for developing evaluation indicators for the ‘Gemengepakt’ created by the Law on intercultural living together.

In Hesperange, we have nevertheless seen a change in registration figures. We started from a registration rate of 11% for non-Luxembourg residents for local elections. The steering committee said it wanted to increase this to 20%. On 17 April 2023, the registration rate for non-Luxembourg residents was 23.6%.

The municipality of Hesperange signed the « Gemengepakt fir interkulturellt Zesummeliewen »  on the 27/03/2024. 

A steering committee of 7 members coming from the council of eldermen, the town council, the commission for intercultural living together and two associations has been set up to oversee the various stages of the « Gemengepakt fir interkulturellt Zesummeliewen »  project.