A Luxembourg tribunal in January sided with Pirate Party MP Sven Clement who had taken the government to court over its refusal to disclose an agreement with RTL Group that regulates the private company’s mission as a quasi-public broadcaster.

Under the agreement, RTL receives €10m annually from the state to broadcast in Luxembourgish. Clement had demanded to see the agreement after RTL announced job cuts in Luxembourg.

Detaille in an interview with RTL on Friday called the court’s decision to disclose the agreement to members of parliament “idiotic and counterproductive,” saying they lacked detailed knowledge on the files to properly assess them.

The Fedil chief, who topped Paperjam's 2020 list of Luxembourg’s most influential businesspeople, said there was no need to increase government transparency on industrial policy. “Do you know where they’re transparent? In dictatorships,” Detaille said.

She also slammed the country’s largest opposition party in parliament, the CSV, who had reported dairy company Fage to the public prosecutor to investigate payments the company had made to consultancies linked to the family business but employing no staff.

“What kind of country is this? That doesn’t make me want to come here,” she said. Fage pulled out of plans to build a yoghurt factory in the country following the CSV’s move and after more than four years of talks failed to yield planning permission.

Parliament’s job

Lawmakers swiftly reacted to Detaille’s comments.

“Just because one felt incompetent as a deputy back in the day, one shouldn’t project that onto others who are doing a good job,” tweeted Clement, referring to Detaille’s own time as a parliamentarian in Belgium from 1985 to 1987.

The CSV’s Laurent Mosar also took to Twitter, saying that it was the parliament’s job to keep government in check, adding that it was Detaille’s statements that were “counterproductive.”

David Wagner of déi Lénk said Detaille’s statements proved that capitalism and democracy were incompatible while the LSAP’s Mars Di Bartolomeo said he was shocked by some of Detaille’s comments, adding that MPs are neither too incompetent nor too irresponsible to treat confidential files.

Lawmakers had previously battled the government on releasing a memorandum of understanding with Google on the construction of a data centre in Bissen, which the government eventually agreed to share in a redacted version with members of the Chamber of Deputies’ economic committee.

MPs have been pushing for more oversight of agreements signed by the government, for example including MoUs with China in support of its Belt and Road Initiative. The US embassy in 2019 published an MoU on space cooperation after the government had previously said the document was confidential.

The government is yet to release the RTL agreement. Prime minister Xavier Bettel’s party, the DP, following the court ruling submitted a motion to parliament calling on the government to evaluate the court’s decision and its potential impact.

The motion met with surprise from opposition MPs who said the court’s verdict was clear and didn’t need to be examined, saying the government should reveal the document as it had been instructed.