Veteran Luxembourg foreign minister quits stage after two decades

In his nearly 20 years as Luxembourg’s top diplomat, Jean Asselborn has grappled with countless crises around the globe at more than 200 meetings with a stream of European Union counterparts.

With his ruddy face and shock of grey hair, the straight-talking 74-year-old has helped his small homeland get its voice heard in debates.

Now, as he leaves his position after recent elections, he says his faith in diplomacy has been tested by two devastating recent events — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attack on Israel.

“You wonder why we still believe in foreign policy and international law,” Asselborn told AFP at his last meeting with EU ministers in Brussels.

In the Middle East, he said the EU committed an “enormous error” by failing to push for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

“For 10 years, it was impossible to put even a two-state solution on the agenda,” he explained.

But despite the turmoil currently shaking the international order, he insisted he still believed firmly in the power of the European project.

“Europe is still here,” he said.

“That’s something. After the financial crisis we lost no-one. After Brexit we said: ‘This is going to be a disaster. Europe is going to unravel.'”

Stick to values

In his time at the helm of Luxembourg’s foreign ministry, Asselborn has seen dozens of EU leaders and ministers come and go.

Luxembourg — a tiny multilingual country where German and French are commonly spoken — has often served as a mediator between the EU big beasts Berlin and Paris.

Nowadays, he admitted, that may not be so true because Brussels now works increasingly in English — the bloc’s most widely spoken second language.

The EU has grown dramatically since Asselborn arrived on the scene, expanding from 15 to its current total of 27 member states as countries in eastern Europe were let in.

That has not made reaching consensus on key foreign policy questions any easier — especially with spoilers such as Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán and the PiS party in Poland.

But it was the question of migration into the bloc during the crisis of 2015-2016 that led to the most heated discussions Asselborn witnessed.

From factory to foreign affairs

A left-leaning socialist, he found himself ostracised for his strong opposition to the anti-migrant rhetoric of the period.

“It’s become horrible, because the only consensus is how to keep people out,” he said.

A factory worker at the age of 18, Asselborn went back to night school and became an administrator of the hospital in his hometown.

First elected to parliament in 1984 on the Socialist ticket, he became foreign minister on 31 July 2004, a position he held continuously until this week.

His EU colleagues posed around him for a group picture on Monday at his last European meeting.

“We will miss his experience, his outspokenness and his passion,” said French minister Catherine Colonna.

Asselborn had a stark warning for those set to come after him.

“Be careful. We must not give in a millimetre on our values with the countries that want to reduce them.”

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