Bech-Bodson Ministry

The Bech-Bodson Ministry was the government of Luxembourg between 29 December 1953 and 29 March 1958. It was a coalition between the Christian Social People's Party (CSV), and the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP).

The unexpected death of Pierre Dupong on 23 December 1953 caught the CSV by surprise. Dupong had chosen a preferred successor for himself, in Pierre Werner. The latter joined the government as Minister for Finances and the Armed Forces.Joseph Bech, who had the longest government experience, became Prime Minister, while also taking over the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture. At the general election of 30 May 1954, the CSV achieved a spectacular victory. It obtained 26 seats out of 52 and, for the second time since 1945, came close to an absolute majority. The new coalition between the CSV and the LSAP took the new power relations into account, by giving the CSV a fourth ministerial post. Émile Colling became the Minister for Agriculture and for Health. At the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Michel Rasquin was now assisted by a commissioner-general in Paul Wilwertz. By decree of 31 December 1957, the latter received the title of secretary of state. Rasquin was criticised within the party for his economic policy that was seen as too liberal, and left the government on 20 January 1958 to become a member of the Commission of the European Economic Community in Brussels. His secretary of state became a minister, until a more wide-reaching reshuffle of the government in March of the same year.

The foreign policy of Luxembourg in the 1950s was dominated by the question of European construction. European unification represented an existential challenge for a country as small as Luxembourg. Joseph Bech, the master of Luxembourgish diplomacy, quoted a saying to justify his government's reserves with regards to the abandoning of sovereignty that the European cause required: "While a fat man grows thin, a thin man dies."

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