Xavier Nicolas Bettel, Prime Minister of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg

Xavier Nicolas Bettel (Luxembourgish pronunciation: [%CB%88ks%C9%91vie%CB%90 ˈbətəl]; born 3 March 1973) is a Luxembourg politician who has been Prime Minister of Luxembourg since 2013. He has previously served as Mayor of Luxembourg City, and is also a Member of the Chamber of Deputies. Bettel is a member of the Democratic Party.Following the 2018 Luxembourg general election he became the first openly gay Prime Minister in the world to be re-elected for a second term. His grandparents were born in Russia, Poland, France and Luxembourg.

Bettel was born on 3 March 1973 in Luxembourg City. His father, Claude Bettel (who died when Xavier was 15), was a wine merchant whose parents were immigrants from Russia and Poland and his mother, Aniela, is French of Russian descent and a grandniece of the composer [Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov]. After completing his secondary school studies at the Lycée Hélène Boucher in Thionville,[9] Bettel obtained a master's degree in Public and European Law and a DEA in Political Science and Public Law from Nancy 2 University in Nancy, France. He also studied maritime law as well as canon law at Aristotle University in Thessaloniki, Greece. He participated in the Erasmus Programme. For four years in the early 2000s he hosted Sonndes em 8, a weekly talkshow, on the now-defunct private T.TV television network. In 2017, he also received an Honorary doctorate from Sacred Heart University Luxembourg.

Political life

Municipal politics

In the 1999 communal elections, Bettel was elected to Luxembourg City's communal council, finishing sixth on the DP's list. On 12 July 2001, he qualified as a lawyer. By the time of the 2004 legislative election, Bettel had significantly consolidated his position, and finished fourth (of the five DP members elected), giving him a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. On 28 November 2005, after the communal elections in which he was placed fourth on the DP list, Bettel was appointed échevin in the Council of Luxembourg City.[2] Following municipal elections on 9 October 2011, at the young age of 38, Bettel was sworn in as Mayor of Luxembourg on 24 November 2011.

National politics

Bettel ran for the Chamber of Deputies in the 1999 legislative election, and finished 10th amongst DP candidates in the Centre constituency, with the top seven being elected.[20] However, the DP overtook the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP) as the second-largest party, and its members formed the majority of the new government as the Christian Social People's Party's (CSV) coalition partners. Thus, with Lydie Polfer and Anne Brasseur vacating their seats to take roles in the government, and Colette Flesch not taking her seat so as to focus on her role as Member of the European Parliament, Bettel was appointed to the Chamber, starting 12 August 1999.

Prime Minister

First term

In 2013, Bettel was elected leader of the Democratic Party, and in the 2013 election, led the party to a third-ranked position in parliamentary seats. On 25 October, Bettel was designated by Grand Duke Henri as the formateur for the next government. He assumed his post as Luxembourg's Prime Minister on 4 December 2013. In the government's coalition of the Democratic Party, Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party and The Greens, he also holds the functions of Minister of State, Minister for Communications and the Media, and Minister for Religious Affairs. His policies were expected to include reforms on same-sex marriage, replace religious instruction in schools with general ethics classes and cut spending to maintain Luxembourg's AAA credit rating.

Second term

Following the 2018 Luxembourg general election, he became the first openly gay prime minister in the world to be re-elected for a second term. He leads the cabinet with Co-Deputy Prime Ministers Étienne Schneider and Félix Braz. He began his second term when his government was formed on 5 December 2018. The government is a continuation of the traffic light coalition between the Democratic Party (DP), the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP), and The Greens from the First Bettel–Schneider Ministry, with minor changes.

Brexit

Renowned as an arch- EU proponent, on 16 September 2019 Bettel refused to move a podium for a joint press conference after Brexit talks with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson MP to a location away from loud protestors outside Luxembourg's Ministry of State, causing Johnson to leave without making any statement. Bettel held the conference alone, mounting an emotional onslaught against Johnson, repeatedly pointing to Johnson's empty podium.

Personal life

Bettel is openly gay, and has stated that increasingly in Luxembourg "people do not consider the fact of whether someone is gay or not". Bettel is Luxembourg's first openly gay Prime Minister and, worldwide, the third openly gay head of government following Iceland's Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir (2009–2013) and Belgium's Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo (2011–2014). As of 2017, he is one of three openly gay world leaders in office, the others being Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach of Ireland;and Ana Brnabić, the Prime Minister of Serbia. Bettel has been married to Gauthier Destenay since 2015, the same year that same-sex marriage was introduced to Luxembourg.

Honours and awards

Order of Civil Merit, Spain, 2007 Order of Orange-Nassau (Grand Officer), Netherlands, 2012 Order of the Oak Crown (Knight Grand cross), Luxembourg, 2014 Legion of Honour (Commandeur), France, 2015 Order of the Crown (Grand Cross), Belgium, 2017 Order of Prince Henry (Grand Cross), Portugal, 2017 Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana (Member 1st Class), Estonia, 2018[ Order of Orange-Nassau (Knight Grand Cross), Netherlands, 2018