Roude Fuedem N°1 - 2024

Dear fellow citizens!

First of all, on behalf of my colleagues from LSAP Roeserban and myself, I would like to wish you a prosperous New Year 2024 filled with happiness and health.

Unfortunately, 2023 was - once again - marked by many wars and devastating conflicts that

cannot leave us indifferent. Whether it be the recent war between Israel and Hamas in the

Gaza Strip, the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, as well as other conflicts

in the world where civilians, including many children and elderly, are being killed. In addition to the loss of human life, there are also the economic consequences such as higher prices (f.ex. energy prices and certain raw materials), the unavailability of products and- higher inflation.

Not to mention other humanitarian crises or the climate crisis, which remains another big challenge we have to face.

It is to be hope and it is in all our interest that a more just world order and the peaceful

coexistence of all people, regain the upper hand over these hostilities.

At a national level, it was an eventful year, characterised by a double election, and a year of successes and disappointments. After the local elections on 11th of June 2023, the LSAP Roeserbann had once again - after 12 years of coalition - the absolute majority in the municipal council.

We would like to thank you once again for the trust you have placed in us. This majority enables us to work in the best interests of all residents of our municipality of Roeser.

As already mentioned, the year 2023 was also characterised by a certain disappointment regarding the last parliamentary elections. Despite gained votes for the LSAPlists, the party had to go into opposition. The political change is part of a of a free democracy and I am

convinced that our party will also find its way in this role and will ensure that the gap between rich and poor does not become even greater, and we want to continue standing up for our values such as freedom, justice and solidarity.

To conclude this editorial I would like to point out that in this issue of "Roude Fuedem", we will, as usual, talk about the municipal budget and announce the first dates of our activities

in 2024.

A transition budget - responsible and orientated towards the future

Traditionally, the first issue of the new year of "roude Fuedem" highlights the municipal

budget adopted a few days earlier by the local council. We conducted an interview with interview with Mayor Tom Jungen, who presented his

17th budget.

R.F.: When you presented the municipal budget, you spoke about a transitional budget.

Could you give us a few explanations on this subject?

T.J.: The communal budget for 2024 is a transitional budget, because it bridges between the previous legislature of the LSAP-CSV coalition and the new legislature under the LSAP. On the one hand, the rectified budget for 2023 will enable projects under way, or completion in 2024, and to new projects which are an integral part of the declaration of the College of Aldermen of July 2023. On the other hand, we’ve witnessed various crises in the recent years, such as the pandemic and then the war in Ukraine, supply difficulties and the explosion of energy prices, today’s high inflation, and with the risk of zero economic growth, or even recession, which makes it very difficult to plan a multi-year budget.

Additionally the rise of interest rates and a degree of uncertainty in regards to the commercial tax revenues and endowments from the government, where we also partly depend on the new CSV-DP government.

As far as I know for now, I expect a recovery from 2025-2026 onwards. It is therefore a question of managing the budget even more responsibly than normal times.

R.F.: So what are the highlights of the budget for 2024 and what are the first priorities of the new legislation?

T.J.: As I've mentioned before, we need to complete the ongoing projects we've started. The biggest project to be completed in the first semester of 2024 is the new community hall with premises for the municipal band, choirs, and the regional music school in Roeser.

The refurbishment works of the Grand-Rue in Roeser will continue, with

the development of a section limited to 30km/h and the parallel of the church square; the Place de la Grève Nationale.

Continuing with Roeser/Crauthem, most of the renovation of the Rue des Sacrifiés

will be completed in 2024 with the installation of a new rainwater evacuation into the Alzette, as well as a pedestrian area/cycleway between rue de l'Alzette and the Grand-Rue. The biggest project currently is most definitely the social housing project "bei der aler Schoul" in Peppange.

In this context, the renovation and redevelopment of the Peppange village centre will start in 2024. This work will not be easy for local residents and restaurants, but it is essential in order to renovate the underground water, sewerage, gas and electricity networks and adapt them to today's requirements. Once this work is completed, the centre of Peppange will have a fresh new look, with a better quality of life and living, as well as safer roads.

The declaration by the aldermen's assembly of July 2023 is "Réiserbann 2030 - a living community with a future". This work programme comprises 13 chapters, including nature and climate protection, mobility, public housing, and children and schools are among the priorities.

The first priorities for 2024 are investing in new photovoltaic installations or extending existing installations, completing the majority of street lighting by LED technology, the start of a multi-year renewal energy-efficient LED technology for public buildings, carrying out a study on heavy rainfall for the whole municipality, and another study to prepare our challenges of climate change and make it overall more resilient.

We also want to move forward on the climate pact and the pact for nature. For example, we will be launching the area of a community garden in Crauthem and encourage the greening of our municipality.

In the field of electromobility, with SWIO as our partner we are expanding the existing infrastructure and taking on new sites in other localities, acquiring additional electric cars and commercial vehicles for community services.

We will start working on a mixed path for pedestrians and cyclists along the CR186 between the Cloche d'Or and Kockelscheuer and, in collaboration with the Ponts et Chaussées administration, which is acting as the contracting authority.

We will continue to improve the safety and comfort of pedestrian crossings and bus stops in the various localities, and we hope to be able to improve the entrance in Crauthem on the "rue de Hellange” to reduce the speed of motorists. The studies for the redevelopment of other entrances of the town, such as “rue d'Alzingen" in Roeser, will be continued.

As far as public housing is concerned, we will be launching a project to build a new apartment block on the "Grand-Rue" in Roeser, where the idea is also to create commercial premises on the ground floor. Another priority for this legislature is the renovation, or even partial reconstruction, of the Crauthem primary school, as well as the construction of a new sports hall in Berchem. This year, we want to proceed with the planning for the above-mentioned sports infrastructure so that we can submit the project to the Municipal Council for a vote by next year at the latest.

R.F.: Despite the transitional budget, it already seems like a lot of work and ideas for 2024?

T.J.: Indeed, although the budget is largely in line with the points from the other parties' election manifestos, the budget was only approved by LSAP and CSV, while the other two opposition parties voted against it. The CSV's vote was less decisive, given that, as mentioned, this is a transition year and the budget still bears some ‘marks’ of our former coalition partner. Only the statement by the CSV Group spokesman that projects that we had put on the back burner had been accepted.

Seule la déclaration du porte-parole du groupe CSV, selon laquelle des projets que nous avions freinés pendant des années au sein de la coalition allaient maintenant être mis en œuvre, a tout de même été surprenante, car ils auraient eu la possibilité de les réaliser.

The statement by the spokesperson of the CSV group, according to which projects that we had slowed down for years within the coalition were now going to be implemented, was very surprising, because they would have had the opportunity to carry them out.

It is normal in a democracy that we can have different opinions and that priorities are sometimes different. However, I will never understand how one can, on the one hand, present the financial situation as being tense and, on the other hand, demand at the same time additional expenses, sometimes recurring or permanent. Constructive criticism is always welcome, but constantly picking up on well-known themes and continuing to repeat them with half-truths or ignoring facts and realities will forever be a mystery to me.

Especially since the discussion had nothing to do with the draft budget for 2024. I am talking here mainly about the position taken by the Greens group in the municipal council. This would have certainly been a strong sign from the DP and the Greens to vote for the budget, as the opposition did in other municipalities, to show that we want to give the new aldermanic college a chance to make its mark, and also in recognition of the majority of voters who placed their trust in our party and its representatives during the municipal elections.

R.F.: What would be your wish regarding the municipal budget for the year which has just ended and for the legislature which just started?

T.J.: For 2024 and the approved budget, I hope on the one hand that we will better control the costs of current projects than has been the case in the recent past due to the crises mentioned above. On the other hand, I hope that the slightly less dynamic economic growth will make it possible to facilitate and accelerate authorization procedures, as the new government has committed to, and that planning will also advance more quickly, because the design offices (research unit) will perhaps be a little less overloaded. Overall, I hope that public finances will regain stability fairly quickly, because healthy public finances also promise good, stable revenue for municipalities.

I also hope that the government will adjust upwards certain subsidies for municipalities and reduce taxes for businesses. We showed up with the promise that our aldermanic statement would be financially secure. However, we will only be able to keep this promise if external factors, economic or political, do not deteriorate or torpedo the good financial situation of our municipality.

Do not antagonize school and sport

During the budgetary discussions in the municipal council, one part of the opposition criticized the decision of the majority of the LSAP to favor in 2024 the planning of a new sports hall in Berchem compared to the renovation respectively to the planning of the new school building in Crauthem.

By way of introduction, I would like to emphasize that for the college of aldermen and myself, these two projects are close to our hearts and that we wish to carry them out. The two points were part of the electoral program of the LSAP Roeserbann on the occasion of the municipal elections of June 2023 and the two projects were retained in the declaration of the college of aldermen for the mandate of 2023-2029. These two projects involve significant financial investments for our municipality. By deciding to launch studies for the new sports hall next year, the LSAP aldermanic college and its majority within the municipal council did not take a decision against the renovation of the school building, but took this decision after having thought about it for a long time and weighed the pros and cons for the following reasons:

• Thanks to the preparatory work of the previous legislature, it is relatively certain that it is better to replace the current part of the Crauthem school, built in the early 1980s, with a new building rather than to renovate everything. Before an architectural competition can be launched, preparatory work must be carried out in collaboration with teaching staff, students and other stakeholders, as we did for the construction of the new school campus in Berchem.

• Then the planning principles of the new gym are ready and a competition of architects can thus lead fairly quickly to a project that takes into account the desired infrastructure, functionality and investment costs.

• Within the technical service of the municipal administration, we do not have the personnel necessary to simultaneously support the planning and development of two relatively large projects.

• Finally, it is a fact that due to the growing number of schoolchildren, there will soon no longer be enough slots in the Crauthem gymnasium for all the children in our municipality to continue playing sports twice per week in an infrastructure adapted to this activity. With a new sports hall in Berchem, the children from the “Pavillon” and “Campus Kannerinsel” schools could play sports, without wasting time due to transport.

To conclude, I would like to emphasize once again that it is first a question of establishing priorities in planning work. In parallel with the development of the architect's project for the Berchem gymnasium, we will continue in 2024, within groups of work, planning the space concept for the future Crauthem school, in order to move forward the following year in the development of an architectural competition. We will therefore not participate in an opposition between school and sport, but we will advance both projects with a firm hand and a cool head and we will then evaluate, according to the priority and the needs of investment, in what order or in parallel construction work can begin.

LSAP Presentation

My name is Yves Damy and I am 31 years old. I live in Crauthem with my partner, but I grew up in Bivange. Professionally, I work as a fire officer at the CCGDIS.

After running for the first time in the municipal elections on June 11 last year, I was fortunate to be immediately elected to the municipal council. Since then, I have also been president of the climate, environment and ecological transition commission, alternate delegate of the municipality of Roeser to the Luxembourg Climate Alliance, as well as member of the sports commission and delegate to the committee of the inter-municipal union of the SPIC swimming pool.

In the years to come, I would like to contribute to a faster progress in the fight against climate change, as well as to increasing our efforts to combat the loss of biodiversity by making our municipality more resilient on all levels.

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