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Xavier Bettel, the prime minister, said the government would not seek to raise taxes to balance the public books, nor order another general shutdown to combat the covid-19 crisis. Library picture: Xavier Bettel is seen arriving for an EU council meeting in Brussels, 19 July 2020. Photo credit: European Council 

Asked during a newspaper interview about possible tax measures to offset Luxembourg’s growing public debt, the PM said: “Raising taxes would be poisonous, both for businesses and individuals. The priority is to boost consumption and employment.”

In a similar vein, Bettel recently quashed talk of reintroducing a wealth tax.

The PM was speaking to the French-language commuter paper L’Essentiel in an interview published on 18 September.

In the interview, Bettel (DP) also stated that a second lockdown “would really be the last thing that I would decide to do.” If needed, he told the freesheet, the government would introduce “targeted” measures to stem the pandemic.