The municipal council in Clervaux includes 11 members and the CSV since the last elections held a narrow majority of six seats. The DP, déi Gréng and an unaffiliated citizen’s group make up the remaining five members.

But Théo Blasen on Tuesday informed the council that he would no longer be serving for the CSV and instead become an independent councillor. This leaves no majority for any group in the commune in the north of Luxembourg.

This will pile pressure on mayor Emile Eicher (CSV) to push through projects until the next elections in 2023. The council opposition, for example, has consistently voted against the commune’s budget in past years.

The move of a councillor to go independent isn’t unprecedented. In Bissen, for example, two CSV councillors defected over disagreements within the party to support the construction of a Google data centre in the commune.

Here, too, the CSV lost its six-seat majority but shifted power to the Är Leit (Your People) opposition group that then appointed a new mayor, David Viaggi.

Eicher in addition to being mayor of Clervaux has also been a member of parliament for the CSV since 2009 and currently serves as president of Syvicol, an organisation that represents the interests of communes and towns in Luxembourg.

More than 5,800 people live in Clervaux, including 2,000 non-nationals. The town of Clervaux is home to the Family of Man photography exhibition, which has Unesco world heritage status. It also boasts one of Luxembourg’s public European schools, the Lycée Edward Steichen.