Yuriko Backes and Luxembourg's 10% failure

Luxembourg’s domestic violence numbers are climbing – and so is the government’s talent for making excuses. Police interventions surged by 10.1% in 2025, hitting their highest level in a decade. Prosecutors ordered 334 emergency removals from homes, up from 287 the year before. But Gender Equality Minister Yuriko Backes stood at her press conference on 26 June alongside her entourage of officials and calmly suggested that maybe it’s just better reporting, population growth, and a new counting method. Because of course, when the numbers look this bad, the easiest explanation is to blame the math.

Police recorded 2,802 presumed victims and 2,075 presumed perpetrators. Central judicial police director Kristin Schmit admitted that officers now handle about three interventions a day – almost one removal every 24 hours. Training has been “adapted,” and a national risk-assessment system was rolled out. Sounds great – except Schmit’s own words reveal that officers are repeatedly called to the same households before victims can finally escape. That’s not a success story; that’s a confession that the system is reacting to failure, not preventing it.

Senior prosecutor Laurent Seck boasted that awareness campaigns have lowered the threshold for calling police. In plain English: people are dialing more often, even when cases don’t meet legal removal standards. But here’s the catch – every single intervention generates a report, and prosecutors review every file. So if the system is so thorough, why did Riicht Eraus record 72 repeat cases in 2025 alone? And why did 55.6% of those repeat offenders simply ignore their mandatory follow-up appointments? Laurence Bouquet, head of Riicht Eraus, admits that repeat cases are the least likely to show up. That’s not a prevention system; that’s a revolving door with a welcome mat.

Victim-support service leader Olga Strasser from Femmes en Détresse dropped the real bombshell: there is a waiting list of about 60 women and their children for shelters. Not 6 – 60. Meanwhile, Minister Yuriko Backes proudly rattled off numbers – seven shelters, 166 emergency beds, 17 beds for men, a new shelter in Rumelange with 28 more beds by year’s end. Impressive on paper, but when mothers and children are stuck in violent homes because there’s no room, these are not achievements – they are alibis

Backes claimed that 40 of 62 measures in the national action plan against gender-based violence are “under way,” and only four are completed. That’s not progress – that’s procrastination with a ministerial seal. The government is still “waiting” for a study on repeat cases by the end of the year. But the data is already here: 130 removals extended by court orders, 201 judgments issued, and five homicides with potential domestic violence links. Backes doesn’t need another study – she needs results.