Between March 2025 and April 2026 the Chamber returned repeatedly to children, young people and the family. The sittings below cover the quality of childcare in crèches and maisons relais, the reform of adoption in the Civil Code, violence in schools, the fall in the birth rate, and the response to the suspected abuse at the Kannerduerf. The quotes below are taken verbatim from the Compte rendu officiel of each sitting.
\nOn 2 April 2025, in the debate on the bill reforming adoption in the Civil Code, Charles Weiler stated the principle that adoption is the child's right to a family and not a person's right to a child.
\n\n\nLéif Kolleeginnen a Kolleegen, et muss een nach eng Kéier kloer soen: Eng Adoptioun ass kee Recht vun enger Persoun, e Kand ze hunn, mee d’Recht vum Kand, eng Famill ze hunn.
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Dear colleagues, it must be said clearly once again: an adoption is not a person's right to have a child, but the child's right to have a family.
\nSitting of 2 April 2025, Charles Weiler, CSV
\nOn 5 March 2026, in the interpellation on the fall in the birth rate, Jeff Boonen stated his group's position that politics should not push people to have more children.
\n\n\nD’Roll vun der Politick ass net, d’Leit dozou ze bréngen, méi Kanner ze kréien, fir dës Zuelen ze verbesseren.
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The role of politics is not to bring people to have more children in order to improve these figures.
\nSitting of 5 March 2026, Jeff Boonen, CSV
\nOn 2 April 2025, in the debate on the bill reforming adoption in the Civil Code, Carole Hartmann presented the bill as bringing the law into line with today's realities.
\n\n\nMat dësem Gesetzesprojet passe mir also den Text de Realitéite vun haut un an droen domadder dozou bäi, Lëtzebuerg als Land gesellschaftspolitesch nach méi modern ze maachen.
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With this bill we therefore adapt the text to the realities of today and so help to make Luxembourg an even more socially modern country.
\nSitting of 2 April 2025, Carole Hartmann, DP
\nOn 5 March 2026, in the interpellation on the fall in the birth rate, Corinne Cahen stated that the decision to have children lies with people, not the state.
\n\n\nWell déi final Decisioun, ob ee Kanner kritt oder net, déi läit net beim Staat, déi läit scho bei de Leit selwer.
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Because the final decision whether someone has children or not does not lie with the state, it lies with the people themselves.
\nSitting of 5 March 2026, Corinne Cahen, DP
\nOn 18 March 2025, in the enlarged question on the quality of childcare in crèches and maisons relais, Francine Closener stated the number of formal notices issued to childcare structures last year.
\n\n\nD’Zuel vun de sougenannte Mises en demeure wéinst Verstéiss géint d’Gesetz ass an de leschte Jore konstant an d’Luucht gaang op zejoert 175 Fäll.
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The number of so-called formal notices for breaches of the law has risen steadily in recent years, to 175 cases last year.
\nSitting of 18 March 2025, Francine Closener, LSAP
\nOn 24 June 2025, in the debate on the motion on violence in schools, Taina Bofferding regretted, as the author of the motion, that the education ministry collects no statistics on such cases.
\n\n\nAllerdéngs bedaueren ech, dass den Educatiounsministère keng Statistiken erhieft, net weess, wivill där Fäll et gëtt.
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However, I regret that the education ministry collects no statistics and does not know how many such cases there are.
\nSitting of 24 June 2025, Taina Bofferding, LSAP
\nOn 30 April 2026, in the debate on the competing motions on violence against children after the Kannerduerf case, Dan Biancalana stated his own view that youth protection is never sufficient.
\n\n\nAn ech mengen och, mat all Respekt, am Jugendschutz mécht een am Fong ni genuch.
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And I also think, with all respect, that in youth protection one never does enough.
\nSitting of 30 April 2026, Dan Biancalana, LSAP
\nOn 2 April 2025, in the debate on the bill reforming adoption in the Civil Code, Dan Hardy objected that opening adoption to single persons creates situations with a very high poverty risk.
\n\n\nWa mer d’Adoptioun also fir Eenzelpersounen opmaachen, bedeit dat och, datt mir bewosst Situatioune fërderen a schafen, bei deenen den Aarmutsrisiko immens héich ass.
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So if we open adoption to single persons, that also means that we deliberately promote and create situations in which the poverty risk is very high.
\nSitting of 2 April 2025, Dan Hardy, ADR
\nOn 5 March 2026, in the interpellation on the fall in the birth rate, Fred Keup stated his own request for an analysis like the Norwegian one.
\n\n\nA mir géifen eis hei wënschen, dass mer och zu Lëtzebuerg, genee wéi an Norwegen, eng Analys géife maachen.
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And we would wish that here in Luxembourg too, exactly as in Norway, we made an analysis.
\nSitting of 5 March 2026, Fred Keup, ADR
\nOn 2 April 2025, in the debate on the bill reforming adoption in the Civil Code, Sam Tanson argued that the stability and love a family offers matter, not its form.
\n\n\nMee d’Realitéit weist eis: Et ass net d’Form vun enger Famill, déi zielt, mee d’Stabilitéit an d’Léift, déi se bitt.
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But reality shows us: it is not the form of a family that counts, but the stability and the love that it offers.
\nSitting of 2 April 2025, Sam Tanson, déi gréng
\nOn 5 March 2026, in the interpellation on the fall in the birth rate, Djuna Bernard stated her own reading that fewer births reflect living conditions, not culture.
\n\n\nManner Gebuerte sinn also kee kulturelle Problem. Si sinn den Ausdrock vu Liewensrealitéiten.
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Fewer births are therefore not a cultural problem. They are the expression of life realities.
\nSitting of 5 March 2026, Djuna Bernard, déi gréng
\nOn 24 June 2025, in the debate on the motion on violence in schools, Sven Clement criticised the lack of data underlying the youth protection and youth criminal law reform.
\n\n\nMir schwätzen iwwer Jugendschutz, Jugendstrofrecht a mir stocheren am Niwwel, well mer guer net wëssen, wéi de Phenomeen sech statistesch opschlësselt.
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We talk about youth protection and youth criminal law and we are groping in the fog, because we have no idea how the phenomenon breaks down statistically.
\nSitting of 24 June 2025, Sven Clement, Piraten
\nOn 30 April 2026, in the debate on the competing motions on violence against children after the Kannerduerf case, Sven Clement praised the opposition motion for naming the Kannerduerf case and the Barnahus model.
\n\n\nSe referéiert sech ganz kloer op den Dossier vum Kannerduerf, bréngt mam Barnahus e ganz kloert Konzept, wat ee kéint ëmsetzen, a verlaangt domadder och Responsabilitéit an e Suivi an Zukunft.
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It refers very clearly to the Kannerduerf file, brings with the Barnahus a very clear concept that could be implemented, and thereby also demands responsibility and a follow-up in future.
\nSitting of 30 April 2026, Sven Clement, Piraten
\nOn 18 March 2025, in the enlarged question on the quality of childcare in crèches and maisons relais, the Minister of Education, Children and Youth stated how many inspections of childcare structures were carried out in 2021 and in 2024.
\n\n\nDat huet derzou gefouert, datt zum Beispill d’Zuel vun deene Kontrollen, déi 2021 nach bei 54 war, 2024 bei 714 war.
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That led, for example, to the number of inspections, which was still 54 in 2021, being 714 in 2024.
\nSitting of 18 March 2025, Claude Meisch, Ministre de l’Éducation nationale, de l’Enfance et de la Jeunesse
\nOn 2 April 2025, in the debate on the bill reforming adoption in the Civil Code, the Minister of Justice stated a figure on children born outside marriage.
\n\n\nEntre-temps sinn et bal 80 % vun de Kanner, déi ausserhalb vun engem Bestietnis op d’Welt kommen.
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By now it is almost 80% of children who are born outside a marriage.
\nSitting of 2 April 2025, Elisabeth Margue, Ministre de la Justice
\nOn 5 March 2026, in the interpellation on the fall in the birth rate, the Minister of the Family stated the government's aim of supporting people who want children.
\n\n\nDat, wat fir mech als Familljeminister zielt, ass, dass mer déi Leit beschtméiglech ënnerstëtzen, bei deenen de Kannerwonsch do ass.
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What counts for me as Minister of the Family is that we support as well as possible those people who have the wish for a child.
\nSitting of 5 March 2026, Max Hahn, Ministre de la Famille, des Solidarités, du Vivre ensemble et de l’Accueil
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