Following the , director general of the Caritas Foundation, there has been a new development in the Caritas affair. MP  (CSV), president of the Caritas special committee in the Chamber of Deputies, announced her resignation in a press release on Tuesday 28 January.

The Caritas Foundation and Caritas Accueil&Solidarité because of her role as a lawyer with the law firm Arendt & Medernach, which represents one of the banks currently under investigation.

Faced with these allegations, Weydert on 9 January asked the advisory committee on the conduct of members of the Chamber of Deputies and the president of the Luxembourg Bar to give their opinion on whether there was a conflict of interest.

A presidency punctuated by departures

Whilst the president of the Luxembourg Bar made it clear that he was not competent to rule on this issue, as his remit was limited to disputes between lawyers in the exercise of their profession, the advisory committee issued a more detailed opinion on the matter. It concluded that there was an “ambiguity within the meaning of Article 3 of the Code of Conduct for Luxembourg members of Parliament with regard to financial interests and conflicts of interest, concerning the exercise of my parliamentary mandate as chair and member of the Caritas special committee in relation to my capacity as a non-active lawyer, but still registered with a law firm responsible for defending the interests of a party involved in the case,” explained the MP.

In a press release, the lawyer justified her resignation in the following terms: “Even if there is no conflict of interest in the legal sense, I consider that the mere ambiguity that could arise in the minds of the public could constitute a risk to the smooth running of the work of the special committee. It could also affect public confidence in the special committee and, more broadly, in the institution of parliament itself.”

These considerations led her to resign immediately as chair and member of the special committee. Weydert’s resignation comes a few months after that of (CSV), her predecessor at the head of the Caritas special committee. Zeimet stepped down in November--after only one month in office--due to a possible conflict of interest.

This article was originally published in .