Enrôlés de Force

Enrôlés de Force (Luxembourgish: Zwangsrekrutéierten, German: Zwangsrekruten) was a Luxembourgish single-issue political party and pressure group.[1][2] It sought to represent the interests of the 12,000 people who had been conscripted into the Wehrmacht during the German occupation of Luxembourg during the Second World War.[2]

The party tried to claim compensation for those conscripted from the government of West Germany as victims of Nazi Germany.[3] Enrôlés de Force won a single seat in the Chamber of Deputies at the 1979 legislative election, having won 4.4% of the vote. In office, they lobbied for official recognition from Luxembourg's government that conscripts were victims of Nazi Germany, which was achieved on 12 June 1981: ending a thirty-year national debate.[4] The party dissolved after achieving this success, and its sole deputy joined the Christian Social People's Party.[2]

Enrôlés de Force was the second party to represent this interest, after the Popular Independent Movement, which had won two seats in the 1964 election.[5]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Reif, Karlheinz (1984). "National Electoral Cycles and European Elections 1979 and 1984". Electoral Studies. 3 (3): 244–255. doi:10.1016/0261-3794(84)90005-2.
  2. ^ a b c Graubart, Noah C. (2000). "Luxembourg: The Party System from 1963 to 2000". International Comparative Political Parties Project. Kenneth Janda. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  3. ^ Mario, Hirsch (May 1980). "European elections: Luxembourg". West European Politics. 3 (2): 250–252. doi:10.1080/01402388008424281.
  4. ^ Thewes (2006), p. 202
  5. ^ Thewes (2006), p. 160

References