The commune of Wincrange lacks money to implement projects

The municipality of Wincrange is the largest in Luxembourg in terms of area, but far from the number of inhabitants. This imbalance creates particular challenges: the expectations of the population are comparable to those of the city, but the resources and scale of infrastructure are very different. In an interview on Tuesday morning, Mayor Lucien Meyers spoke about the challenges and successes of local politics.

The main problem is finance. Now a new educational centre is being built in the commune, which will unite the school and Maison relais. Its cost is about 45 million euros, which exceeds the annual budget of Vinkrange. There are also plans in the field of health care: we are talking about expanding the medical centre. But due to the distance from the nearest hospital (in Ettelbrück) it is difficult to attract specialists.

An equally sensitive topic is water supply. Here, water is more expensive than in cities because the infrastructure has to serve 27 villages and 90 small buildings in the green belt, including farms. "I support former MP Aly Kaes' proposal for a uniform water tariff across the country. We have the biggest infrastructure needs in the north," the mayor emphasised. At the same time, he acknowledged that the requirement to build sewage treatment plants in every village has been cancelled, and this has seriously eased life.

The financial situation is gradually improving in other areas. For example, the system of contributions to the Employment Fund has changed: previously Wincrange was the largest net contributor (between €700,000 and €3.5 million annually), but now all the communes pay the same - 2 per cent of the income tax collected. Meyers sees this as a manifestation of "genuine solidarity".

An important issue for the future of the country is the amalgamation of municipalities. Wincrange itself was created in 1978 by the merger of four municipalities. According to the mayor, such processes are more difficult today: each commune already has its own schools, gyms or swimming pools, and local identities are only getting stronger. "For unification to be possible, we need to create joint projects. This is the only way to form a common identity," he believes.

And while financial incentives from the state might help, Meyers believes the main motivator is not money, but a sense of common purpose that can unite the residents of even the largest and most disparate commune.