Grand Duchess's Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
Grand Duchess's Chancellor of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg | |
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Groussherzoginskanzlerin vum Grand-Duché de Luxembourg (Luxembourgish) | |
Government of Luxembourg | |
Style | His Excellency |
Residence | Grand Ducal Palace, Luxembourg |
Appointer | Monarch of Luxembourg on the advice of the prime minister of Luxembourg |
Term length | At Her Royal Highness's pleasure |
Formation | 15 December 1848 |
First holder | Gaspard-Théodore-Ignace de la Fontaine |
Succession | Administrator of the Government of Luxembourg performs duties if necessary |
Salary | €104,100 annually |
Website | www.qc.lu |
The Grand Duchess's Chancellor of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg ({{wp|Luxembourgish}: Groussherzoginskanzlerin vum Grand-Duché de Luxembourg) is the unitary viceregal representative of the Luxembourgish monarch, currently Grand Duchess Alexandra. The Grand Duchess, as the head of state of Luxembourg, traditionally resides in the country from June to December each year, while from January to May, her role as head of state is usually exercised by the Grand Duchess's Chancellor, whose role mirrors that of its Dutch counterpart, the Queen's Chancellor of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Grand Duchess's Chancellor is appointed by the Grand Duchess on the advice of the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, with the candidate normally being chosen from among former public servants whom are deemed "respectable" and "fully suitable" for the role. While the chancellor's tenure is indefinite and not fixed by any laws or regulations, the office is only actually active in the absence of the monarch, with the usual time period ranging from January to May each year, although, either due to special circumstances or the monarch's own personal choice, the office itself may remain "dormant" throughout those months, and would only become active in the later months of the year, a period in which the monarch would be residing in the United Kingdom instead, a circumstance that arose from a longstanding tradition whereby the monarch would alternate between living in the United Kingdom for one half of the year and living in the Netherlands and Luxembourg for the other half of the year.
The 8th and current chancellor is Jacques Santer, whom, like his predecessors, previously served as the country's prime minister and has since then maintained a largely positive reputation with the public, a trait that is deemed essential for a candidate appointed to the office. He was nominated on July 4th 2002 to succeed Pierre Werner, whom passed away while in office on 24 June 2002. During the one-month-long interim between Werner's passing and Santer's appointment as Grand Duchess's Chancellor, the President of the Court of Cassation, Juliette Theisen, temporarily served in an interim capacity, becoming the first woman in Luxembourg's history to do so.