Josy Arens died this Tuesday, after undergoing heart surgery. Attert mourns the man who was until recently its mayor and who succeeded in transfiguring this rural and border commune. The province loses a champion for the defense of rurality.
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Born in 1952, Josy Arens was the son of a farmer and rose one by one through the ranks to the House of Representatives where he served for 22 years. A man of issues, he was invested in the defense of Luxembourg’s rurality and particularism. But also and above all in his commune.
Josy Arens’ fight at the Federal Government was above all that of the Border Fund, negotiated with his long-time friend, Jean-Claude Juncker. Through this agreement, the grand-ducal state retrocedes part of the tax collected on the work of Belgian cross-border workers. Josy Arens was also an essential champion of preference voices.
Another of his fights for rurality, the tax deductibility of student accommodation, was unsuccessful but helped open the debate. But Josy Arens is also the creation of the 3rd natural park in Wallonia, the defense of the agricultural world as well as a concern for the environment well before anyone else. The Luxembourg windfall was a real breath of fresh air that was more than welcome for border communities, particularly in Attert where more than one in two workers work in Luxembourg. When he and his team arrive at the head of Attert, everything is to be done…
One of Josy Arens’ latest achievements is the bilingual display of village names. He was also viscerally attached to his dual identity. Today Attert is at half mast and all rural areas have lost a fierce defender.
The municipality of Attert will open a register of condolences accessible every day this week from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
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