BBC News, 10
July 2013
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Jean-Claude Juncker has been prime minister of Luxembourg since 1995 |
Luxembourg
will hold new elections after Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker announced he
would resign following a secret service scandal.
Mr Juncker,
Europe's longest-serving leader, said he would step down on Wednesday,
according to reports.
The move
came as his junior coalition partner called for the dissolution of parliament
and early elections.
It follows
claims he failed to stop illegal security agency activity such as phone-taps
and corruption.
Mr Juncker
has been prime minister since 1995 and was head of the eurozone finance
ministers group between 2005 and January 2013.
'Not my top
priority'
Luxembourg's
parliament reviewed a report on Wednesday alleging a series of cases of
misconduct by the country's SREL security agency, which the prime minister
oversees.
It included
claims of illegal bugging of politicians, the purchase of cars for private use
and payments in exchange for access to local officials.
"The
intelligence service was not my top priority," Juncker told parliament in
a two-hour speech.
"Moreover,
I hope Luxembourg will never have a prime minister who sees SREL as [his or
her] priority."
But there
were demands for action from the Luxembourg Socialist Workers Party (LSAP), Mr
Juncker's coalition partner.
"We
invite the prime minister to take full political responsibility in this context
and ask the government to intervene with the head of state to clear the path
for new elections," LSAP President Alex Bodry said.
It was not
immediately clear whether the outgoing prime minister was planning to fight the
next election, which must be held within three months.
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