Record year for petitions pushing requests through parliament

Luxembourg residents last year increasingly turned to their computer keyboards to make their demands known to politicians, increasing the number of public petitions seeking action by nearly 60%, a lawmaker said on Wednesday.

In the year ending this month, Luxembourg residents introduced a record 428 petitions they hoped would prompt action from lawmakers, up from 271 over the previous year, said Nancy Arendt, the president of the Parliament's petitions committee. 

They included petitions calling for laws allowing every Luxembourg worker to be able to work from home two days a week, to shorten the working week to 35 hours, to ease rules barring the unvaccinated from public or working spaces,  and to make English the country's fourth official language.

Deputies are required to discuss any petition that gathers at least 4,500 signatures within a period of 42 days, with some proposals becoming law as a result.

The public most often demanded that politicians address issues related to health (20%), transportation (15%), work and employment (10%) and society and family topics (10%), according to a statement on the parliament's website.

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