The Luxembourg-France border is prime pro-EU territory — except it isn’t

“There’s the traffic, there’s the commuting time, but that comes with a benefit: a different mindset and better living conditions,” Joyeux told POLITICO as he sipped on a virgin mojito in one of Luxembourg’s nascent business districts, Belval. “Compared to my past experiences in France, there’s a cultural diversity which is more enriching.” 

Joyeux is one of the nearly 100,000 residents of eastern France who travel daily to work alongside Luxembourg’s 650,000 residents, a figure that keeps going up and which a study by the French statistics office attributed to a quest for higher wages.

Life at the border

Life in the region of Moselle, where Joyeux lives, is largely structured around the border with Luxembourg, with residents enjoying many of the benefits of the EU’s passport-free Schengen area and the single market. There are long queues at gas stations in Luxembourg filled with French people taking advantage of cheaper fuel, and smokers buying packs of cigarettes at around half the price charged in France.     

In Thionville, Moselle’s second most populous city, the freely distributed newspaper is the Luxembourgish daily L’Essentiel, and some street signs are even translated into German, an official language in Luxembourg along with French and Luxembourgish.

Surely this region, which relies so much on the benefits of crossing borders, will vote for pro-EU parties in June’s European election? Maybe not. 

Fabienne Menichetti, mayor of Ottange, a small town along the border with Luxembourg, said she was stunned by both the low turnout in her town during the 2019 European election, and the far-right’s strong performance, and is worried about the outcome being the same this year.