2025 was a very special year for the Minett Mash-Up: we travelled through every municipality of the Minett UNESCO Biosphere, and in each episode we put the region, the biosphere and its decision-makers in the spotlight. This “Best Of 2025” looks back on the political and human journeys, on the professions, the paths and the industrial heritage that make up the Minett.

In January we kicked off the year in Bettembourg with Mayor Laurent Zeimet and alderman and PRO-SUD committee member Jean Marie Jans: politics and journalism, mobility and the stork were at the centre of attention. In February, in Differdange, Mayor Guy Altmeisch and PRO-SUD Vice-President Erny Muller joined us—policing and youth work in football, the profession of electrical engineer and the “Net Zero Cities” project were the topics we discussed with the two local politicians. March took us to Dudelange to see Mayor Dan Biancalana, where we talked about urban development (Neischmelz, the village centre, the mobility plan), a possible national art archive and local recreation areas.

 

In April, the Esch-sur-Alzette Mayor and PRO-SUD President Christian Weis gave a voice to a new generation of politicians. With him we traced his path into politics, including his passion for pastry-making and the role of PRO-SUD in the sustainable development of the Minett Biosphere. In May, Käerjeng was in focus, with former minister and long-serving mayor Michel Wolter and Yves Cruchten—alderman, PRO-SUD committee member and member of parliament—who jointly lead the merged municipality. In June, we spoke with Jean Weiler from the municipality of Kayl-Tétange about how a municipality in the narrow valley between two nature reserves can develop—through the “Plan de développement communal”, the Kayl-North district and the Ferrum Museum.

 

In July we spoke with Jeannot Fürpass (Mayor of Mondercange) and former PRO-SUD President Anouk Boever-Thill: the fast tram, cycle paths, a solar park on the spoil tip (crassier), the Féiz business zone and the Dumontshaff nature reserve with its water buffalo and storks were our topics. In August, in Pétange, with Mayor Jean-Marie Halsdorf and alderman and PRO-SUD bureau member Guy Brecht, we put industrial heritage, the railway and the mills of the Kordall municipality in the spotlight. In September it was Rumelange’s turn: Mayor Henri Haine and young alderman Elvedin Muhovic spoke about cooperation between generations, industrial heritage, the Musée des Mines and the arboretum with its geological uniqueness.

 

In October, we highlighted the only female mayor from the Minett Biosphere, Simone Asselborn-Bintz of the municipality of Sanem: women in politics, equality, her roots as the child of a famous entertainer, and social policy through her experience as an educator—and we also talked about the skylark as a symbol of the Minett Biosphere. At the end of our journey through the PRO-SUD municipalities, in November we met Carlo Feiereisen in Schifflange: the recent change in the mayor’s office, his past as a nurse anaesthetist, his role at Agora and the Metzeschmelz as an example of the link between the industrial past and modern urban development were what interested us at that time.

 

This “Best Of 2025” shows: the Minett Biosphere is not just a region, but a living space in which industrial heritage, biodiversity and committed women and men politicians work together to shape the next chapters of the region.