Bech Ministry

The Bech Ministry came into office in Luxembourg on 16 July 1926 after the resignation of the Prüm Ministry. It was reshuffled on 11 April 1932 and on 27 December 1936. It stepped down after the referendum on the so-called Maulkuerfgesetz (muzzle law), in which the majority of voters decided against the law.

After the Prüm government's resignation, the Grand Duchess had initially intended to confide the formation of a government to Hubert Loutsch, already a former prime minister. However, the man associated with the "coup d’État" of 1915 was unacceptable in the eyes of the left.Joseph Bech was chosen in the end. A pragmatic conservative, he managed to rapidly reach an agreement with the liberals. The coalition between the Party of the Right and the liberal movement lasted until 1937. The partial elections of 3 June 1928, and of 7 June 1931 and of 3 June 1934 did not change the power relations, although there were several ministerial reshuffles. On 11 April 1932, Albert Clemang resigned during the debates on the nationalisation of certain railway networks in which he had personal interests. He was replaced by Étienne Schmit. In late 1936, the professor Nicolas Braunshausen, a future president of the Radical Liberal Party, took over from Norbert Dumont.

After World War I, the main priority of Luxembourgish foreign policy was to assure the security of the Grand Duchy in the new organisation of Europe. Situated as it was between the two great military powers of the continent, France and Germany, the country would risk seeing its existence endangered in the event of a new conflict between its neighbours. The warming of Franco-German relations since the Locarno Conference in 1925 was a positive sign. The Locarno Treaties provided for countries' security to be guaranteed by the development of procedures to resolve international differences peacefully. The Luxembourgish government profited from these dispositions to conclude a number of treaties of conciliation and arbitration with other countries. It signed treaties with Belgium and France in 1927; Spain and Poland in 1928; Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Czechoslovakia and the United States in 1929; Romania in 1930 and, finally, Italy and Norway in 1932.

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