My dream is a society where attentiveness, skills and commitment will pay off. Where talent, entrepreneurship, initiative is important but without losing sight of those with more difficult living conditions than our own?
I stepped down as chairman of CSV international a few years ago because of personal issues. Since then the world has changed but not the CSV. After having been away from Luxembourgish politics for a couple of years, I realised that I as a foreigner, have to take control of my own situation, remain involved political affairs but most of all, take responsibility.
Luxembourg, a society characterised by security, freedom, prosperity, mostly free health and education and opportunities for all. A society where it is better to live than most other countries. We are small and need to move fast to react to the outside world. The disruption from new technology is breaking up the otherwise solid platform envisioned and built by the prior CSV leadership. Where would Luxembourg have been if it wasn’t for Pierre Werner’s transition from steel to satellites, Santer and Juncker adding the icing to the cake with the banking industry.
But it is time to find new industries to support the welfare of our children and grandchildren. Though the financial industry might remain to some extend in Luxembourg, many of the jobs will go away. Among others, AI is quickly changing the world, Luxembourg included which means jobs can be automated and less people are needed. The nature of work will continue to change, and that will require strong education and retraining programs. The World Economic Forum concurs: “Across nearly all industries, the impact of technological and other changes is shortening the shelf-life of employees’ existing skill sets. . .. The talent to manage, shape and lead the changes underway will be in short supply unless we take action today to develop it. Businesses will need to put talent development and future workforce strategy front and centre to their growth. Firms can no longer be passive consumers of ready-made human capital. They require a new mind-set to meet their talent needs.”
So my question is, can the CSV manage that transition or are we still locked into the old way of thinking?
I believe that we should put people before the systems, politicians create the framework but should not participate in the execution of it. That’s why we have a public sector. The hospitals are run better by health professionals than by politicians, schools better by teachers than by bureaucrats. We have to reconsider how we allocate leadership to the public institutions and not always look at the party colour before the individual’s qualification.
Like the current government, I support a green transition to get rid of fossil fuels. But at a pace and at a course where we ensure that it has a positive impact on our competitiveness and that the cost is spread equally across the society. Is the current increase of green taxes not mostly hurting the middle class?
Luxembourg is governed by block politics where the ideas from the opposition by definition are bad. Will that change if the CSV return to cabinet? That kind of thinking makes me very tired of politics. I would like us to think differently, act differently but remain who we are – but in a different way.
Like other European countries, we have many political parties. My party is the CSV. But that does not mean that I agree with everything the parliamentary group or the party leadership says or do. Sometimes we need a place where we can bounce off ideas which are not necessarily included in the party program. But that doesn’t mean that they are bad ideas. That is why I think that there is room for a new movement inside the party. We need renewal and we need it now. I would like to see a movement which is not focused on age, gender, education or job and origins. A committed political network to inspire others to get involved, independent of party structures and old settings – A CSV 2.0
I would definitely like to give it a try. – Would you?