According to ehistorylib, in 2005, Luxembourg had a population of approximately 467,000 people with a GDP of $40.8 billion. The economy was heavily reliant on the financial services sector and international trade, which accounted for over 80% of GDP. Unemployment rates were low at around 5%, while poverty levels remained quite low with an estimated 3% of the population living below the poverty line.
Foreign relations in 2005 were strong with Luxembourg being a member of various international organizations such as the European Union (EU) and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In addition, it maintained diplomatic ties with many countries in Europe and North America. It was also an important ally to neighbouring countries such as Belgium, France and Germany and had close trade ties to other European countries.
Politically, Luxembourg was a constitutional monarchy during this time period with executive power vested both in the Grand Duke who could appoint ministers responsible for executing policy decisions as well as the Chamber of Deputies which could pass laws that could be vetoed by the Grand Duke. Furthermore, there were two branches of government: Executive (Grand Duke) and Legislative (Chamber of Deputies). These branches worked together to ensure that laws were properly enforced throughout the country.
Yearbook 2005
Luxembourg. According to countryaah, Luxembourg is the capital and one of the major cities within the country of Luxembourg. The Luxembourg people voted in a referendum in July for the Treaty on a New EU Constitution. Unlike several other EU countries, Luxembourg, despite voters in France and the Netherlands, previously voted no to the Treaty. The result was seen as a victory for Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who had threatened to resign at a no. All parties in Parliament supported the treaty, but the jas side nevertheless received no more than 56% of the vote. The referendum was the first in Luxembourg since the 1930s.
- Also see abbreviationfinder.org for how the acronym LU stands for the country of Luxembourg and other meanings of this two-letter abbreviation.
2008 Economic crisis
The global economic crisis, like the other Baltic countries, hit Lithaun hard. The country’s economic development since its accession to the EU in 2004 was largely loan-financed, and the crisis therefore hit both the private economy and the social economy severely. GDP fell by 16.8% in 2009 and unemployment continued to rise during the year. By December, it had reached 15.8% and youth unemployment had reached 30.4%. During the first 3 quarters of 2009, construction activity declined by 46.8% and retail sales fell 30%.
The Conservative government’s response to the crisis was the firing of public servants and the decline in wages. In the third quarter of 2009, Lithaun EU had a record when wages as a whole fell by 10.9%. Conservative politics led to frequent demonstrations. In January 2009, two major demonstrations were convened by the trade union movement. Both demonstrations were attacked by police with rubber bullets, lace and tear gas. In April, new demonstrations came. This time by police, fire departments and border police in protest of the wage cuts. Some policemen participated barefoot in the demonstration in protest of the widespread poverty in the country.
The May 2009 presidential election was won by independent Dalia Grybauskaitė, who received a landslide victory with 68.2% of the vote. She became the country’s first female president. Due. the country’s deep economic crisis, she declared that she would receive only half of the salary the president had received until then.
In July, Parliament passed a law banning all mention of homosexuality in the media, schools and public places. The law was to enter into force in March 2010. The EU objected to the law that violates human rights. The Union also pointed out that it can impose sanctions on Member States that violate its common values.
Last fall, it was officially confirmed that from 2004-05, Lithaun had participated in the CIA’s “rendition program” – incarceration, interrogation and torture of terror suspects. Lithaun had built a special secret prison in Antaviliai outside Vilnius. At least eight terror suspects had been deployed and interrogated in this prison in 2004-05, flown in by the CIA on unregistered flights and outside the immigration authority. Lithaun had secretly participated in the United States torture program.
History. – After a first warning in the municipal elections of October 1963, a shift to the left of the electorate was registered in the politics of June 7, 1964: the socialists almost reached parity with the Christian-socialists while the liberals were almost halved, returning to the levels of 1954. The same outgoing Prime Minister P. Werner, on 9 July (after the longest crisis ever occurred in the Grand Duchy) set up a joint cabinet of Christian-Socialists and Socialists. On 12 November of the same year (as announced on 25 March) the Grand Duchess Carlotta, after 45 years of reign, passed the throne to her son Jean, who had already been her lieutenant-representative for three years. The government coalition lasted until October 29, 1968, when Werner resigned over disagreements over funding the welfare program. After the elections of 15 December, which saw a liberal success and a socialist decline, it was again Werner who established the new government, returning to the alliance between Christian-social and liberals. In 1971, the Socialists made a pact of unity of action with the Communists and this caused the detachment from the Socialist Party of 6 of its 18 deputies, who founded the Social Democratic Party. In the elections of May 26, 1974 (the first in which the right to vote was extended to eighteen-year-olds) the Socialists nevertheless had a resounding success, while the majority party lost some seats to the advantage of the liberal allies: it was the hardest defeat that the Christians -socials had suffered during the last fifty years: and for the first time they were forced to give up power. The new government was formed on June 15 by the liberal G. Thorn (foreign minister of the outgoing cabinet), with the alliance of the liberals and the socialists. On 4 July, Thorn presented a program marked by a vigorous will to reform in the Chamber, confirming the traditional Atlantic and European position of Luxembourg.
