Luxembourg politicians compete for votes of Brazilians with dual citizenship

Luxembourg politicians compete for votes of Brazilians with dual citizenship

Legislative election will be the first after law that boosted recognition of nationality in Brazil

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1 27 Aug. 2023 at 23:15 Printed edition

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Renan Marra São Paulo

The vote of Brazilians with dual citizenship has come to be disputed with determination by politicians of Luxembourg, country in Europe with the highest GDP per capita in the world, which prepares for legislative elections in October.

The movement is the result of the expressive increase in the number of Brazilians with dual citizenship in recent years. In June, 26,743 Luxembourgish citizens lived in Brazil, a figure that is equivalent to almost twelve times the total of 2,307 registered in 2018, according to government data.

The most recent balance represents 4.2% of the total population of Luxembourg, a grand duchy squeezed between Belgium, Germany and France with just over 660 thousand people, equivalent to the city of Cuiabá.

City of Luxembourg, the capital of the European country of the same name

The explosion of the granting of citizenships is a consequence of a law that was in force from 2008 to 2018 and facilitated the recognition process. During the window, the government evaluated requests made by people who could prove having a Luxembourgish ancestor who was alive in 1900, including of maternal lineage. Today, only the male ancestor is recognized.

The demand was so high that it came to overload the Luxembourgish departments responsible for analyzing the paperwork — Brazilians were able to open the process without traveling to Europe. The people who had their requests accepted have until 2025 to go to Luxembourg and complete the process.

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The increase in the number of Brazilians with the Luxembourgish passport entered the radar of local politicians, and the topic began to be discussed in the electoral race. Roberta Züge, 50, has dual citizenship and, according to the local press, is the first Brazilian to run for a seat in the Parliament of the grand duchy. She has lived in the European country for only three years and was invited to be a candidate by the Pirate Party, a modest party founded in 2009 that today has two of the 60 seats in Parliament.

Born in Santo André (SP), Züge is a veterinarian and did not have political experience in Brazil, but drew the attention of the party leadership after publicly demanding the validation of her diploma so that she could exercise the profession in Luxembourg. She says that she carried out the equivalence process of the document in Portugal and, during eight months, her requests for work authorization were ignored.

“The ministry did not respond to me. They did not want to give work authorization for being a diploma from outside the European Community,” she says. “I faced very great prejudice, I fought and gained a certain visibility.”

The Brazilian with dual citizenship Roberta Züge, candidate to the Parliament of Luxembourg

Züge only managed to obtain authorization to work after her case was published by the local press. After the process that she describes as a battle, she says that she became a reference for other newly arrived people. “Then, they [Pirates] invited me to draw attention to all the problematics of those who have citizenship and who, when they arrive, are not integrated,” she says, also co-founder partner of the Association of Luxembourgers in Brazil.

Züge’s proposals are centered on integration. If elected, she promises to work for the reform of the system of recognition of diplomas in Luxembourg. She also intends to expand reception and adaptation programs, as well as exchanges with the Luxembourgish community in Brazil, her target audience. One of her campaign leaflets presents the projects in Portuguese and explains how citizens can vote from abroad.

In addition, if she wins the seat in Parliament, Züge will need a translator to defend her proposals at the podium. Parliamentarians are not obliged by law to speak the official languages of the country, but debates take place mainly in Luxembourgish, which the candidate does not master. Before the official start of the campaign, on September 2, she immerses herself in an intensive course of the language: she takes five classes per week of four hours each. Luxembourgish is one of the official languages of the grand duchy, in addition to French and German.

Almost half of the population of Luxembourg is made up of foreigners, mainly from Europe — the Portuguese community leads the list, followed by the French. Keeping an eye on voters who do not live in the country, the Democratic Party, of the prime minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, has been publishing videos in which the politician communicates in Portuguese about voting by correspondence — he also recorded versions in English, Dutch and French.

Sven Clement, leader of the Pirates, highlights that this will be the first election with more than 10% of voters living abroad. The decision to invite the Brazilian Züge to the party, he says, is due to her continuous work with Luxembourgers of Brazil. “Knowing that the current government has a majority of only one seat, [voters who live abroad] can have a tremendous impact,” evaluates Clement. The name of the party, he states, is an allusion to the idea of “stealing” or borrowing good ideas and was born inspired by the Piratebay site.

Of the 60 candidates of the Pirates, six (10%) are Luxembourgers born in Portuguese-speaking countries — in addition to Züge, the party is represented by four candidates from Portugal and one from Cape Verde.

In June, Brazil was the third country with the most Luxembourgish citizens outside the territory, behind only France and Belgium. In the attempt to attract votes, some candidates have crossed the ocean to talk and present proposals.

Jan Eichbaum, honorary consul of Luxembourg in São Paulo since 1997, says that he received eight politicians, from left and right, who came to Brazil for meetings with potential voters at events organized by associations of Luxembourgish citizens with the support of the consulate. Some of the events gathered up to 700 people. “Soon, we will organize a lunch for Luxembourgers to talk with deputies about geopolitics in Europe.”

Politically the attempt to conquer votes with displacement and face-to-face contact with voters seems to be exaggerated, but it is justified. A survey carried out by the American company LuxCitizenship, with 581 Brazilians who live outside Luxembourg, indicates that only 24% intend to vote in October; 46% are still undecided.

This expressiveness in the number of votes of people abroad has caused controversy. Some parties with anti-immigration platforms even threaten to take the process to court and demand that the right to vote be conditioned on the presentation of the passport. According to LuxCitizenship, only 11% of Luxembourgers who live in Brazil have the document.

However, Sven Clement encourages that even those who only have the declaratory document of dual citizenship register their vote. “If someone does not receive the ballot for not having the passport, they will be able to contact the Pirates and we will proceed in court to demand the right to vote,” said the leader of the Pirates.

Officially, the government says that the facilitation of the granting of citizenship was a matter of justice for the families of expatriates. Most of them were descendants of people who fled during the First or the Second World War, many to work in companies of Luxembourgish capital around the world. Specialists, however, say that the real objective is to attract new residents, in an attempt to maintain the population of working age.

The election is scheduled for October 8, and voting is not mandatory for voters who live outside Luxembourg. Citizens who wish to vote must make the request until next Tuesday (29) through the portal myguichet.lu.

The candidate Roberta Züge says that she was startled by the proposal to enter Luxembourgish politics at first. But she accepted the project after hearing that the invitation was not only for her, but for the entire Brazilian community. “We want them to, in fact, start to exercise citizenship,” she says.