Euthanasia Row Sparks Luxembourg Constitutional Debate

Luxembourg’s Prime Minister is calling for reducing the powers of Grand Duke Henri after he threatened to block a law legalizing euthanasia if it passes in the parliament of the tiny European country.

Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said Luxembourg would change its constitution to reduce the powers of the Grand Duke, who traditionally stays above politics.

“Because we wish to avoid a constitutional crisis, but at the same time respect the opinion of the Grand Duke, we are going to take out the term ‘approve’ from article 34 of the constitution and replace it with the word ‘promulgate,’” said Juncker, a move which would scrap the sovereign’s formal power to block laws.

“I understand the Grand Duke’s problems of conscience. But I believe that if the parliament votes in a law, it must be brought into force,” Juncker said earlier, despite his own personal opposition to the bill.

Luxembourg’s Justice Minister, Luc Frieden, said the move was designed to avert a constitutional crisis in the micro-state wedged between France, Germany and Belgium.

The Grand Duke “will no longer participate in the legislative process, he will just sign the law to mark the completion of the procedure,” Frieden said.

Juncker, whose Christian Social Party had opposed the euthanasia bill, said the constitution would be revised before the bill was read again and that he expected this could happen before the end of the year.

If the euthanasia bill passes, Luxembourg would be one of a handful of countries that allow the terminally ill to end their lives.

Never in Luxembourg‘s history has the sovereign blocked a decision agreed in parliament.

In 1990, King Baudouin of neighboring Belgium, the Grand Duke’s uncle, abdicated for a day to avoid signing a Belgian law liberalizing abortion that he opposed on religious grounds.