Emergence The ADR has its roots in a demonstration in
Luxembourg City on 28 March 1987, held to protest at the disparities between the 5/6ths
final salary scheme enjoyed by civil servants and the basic state pension received by everyone else. The large crowd, and the collection of 10,000 signatures for a petition demanding change, persuaded the organisers that there was widespread public support. The party was founded on 12 May 1987 as the 'Action Committee 5/6ths Pensions for Everyone' (
Aktiounskomitee 5/6 Pensioun fir jiddfereen). In the
1989 election to the Chamber of Deputies, on 18 June 1989, the party achieved remarkable success by attracting votes from far beyond its core support base. Many Luxembourgers voted for the ADR as a
protest vote, allowing the ADR to register 7.3% of the vote, win 4 of the 60 seats, and come fourth. On 22 November 1992, the name was changed again, to 'Action Committee for Democracy and Pensions Justice' (
Aktiounskomitee fir Demokratie an Rentengerechtigkeet). At the 10 October 1993 local elections, the ADR won 7 seats in
communal councils. At the
1994 general election, the ADR got 9.0% of the vote and 5 seats, putting the ADR over the threshold required to qualify as a
caucus, but the ADR fell to fifth place, behind the resurgent
Greens. fulfilling the ADR's original ''raison d'être'', but this did not prevent the ADR from strengthening its position further. In the
1999 legislative election, the party enjoyed increased success, winning 9.4% of the vote and 7 seats. The results put the ADR back into fourth place, but the Greens managed to hold on to their seat in the simultaneous
European elections. It was the only parliamentary party that actively campaigned against the
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, which was
put to a referendum and narrowly passed with 56.5% of voters in favour. On 2 April 2006 the name was changed once more, to its current name of 'Alternative Democratic Reform Party' (
Alternativ Demokratesch Reformpartei). On 29 May 2008, the ADR deputies and Jaerling were the only members not to vote for the
Treaty of Lisbon. In the
2009 Chamber election, the ADR held on to four seats (of which, 2 in
Sud), but with a reduced vote share of 8.1%: its worst legislative election result since its first election, in 1989, whilst its vote share fell - albeit by less - in the simultaneous
European Parliament election, to 7.4%. Jaerling, running for his own
Citizens' List, failed to win a seat in either. This had been in spite of strong pre-election polling, the difference likely to be attributable to the financial crisis pushing voters to more familiar parties. On 8 June 2010, the ADR joined the
Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe, a Euro-Realist
Europe-wide political party. In the snap-election of 2013, the ADR once again fell in their share of the vote, from 8.14% to 6.64%. However, they did manage to regain one seat, having fallen to only two MPs after the defections of
Jacques-Yves Henckes and
Jean Colombera. The former sat out the 2009-2013 legislative period as an independent, the latter founded the
Party for Full Democracy.
Roy Reding regained the mandate in the Centre district, putting the party back at 3 mandates. During the
Constitutional Referendum Campaign of 2015, the ADR was the only party to explicitly campaign for the "3 x No" vote, thereby rejecting the opening of the right to vote for 16 year-olds and foreign residents, as well as rejecting the idea of limiting minister mandates to 10 years. This campaign was in stark contrast to the campaign of the largest party, the CSV, whose main message was to "be informed" when voting. With each question being rejected by between 70% and 80% of the electorate, this event represented a big political win for the ADR in face of the incumbent Government. 3 years after the Referendum, on 2 March 2018, the ADR announced that it would be co-operating with the citizen's movement
Wee 2050 - Nee 2015, which had been founded pre-referendum to campaign for the "3 x No". The cooperation agreement involved Wee 2050 having up to 8 places on the ADR's electoral lists for the legislative election of October 2018, and ensured that the movement could remain relatively independent by not requiring the Wee 2050 candidates to be members of the ADR per se. In 2020-2021, during the
COVID-19 pandemic, the ADR was the only political party in Luxembourg to oppose governmental measures like closing restaurants, claiming the restrictions infringed upon personal freedoms. Following the 2025 expulsion of (ADR) MEP
Fernand Kartheiser from the
ECR group for visiting Russia, the
Patriots for Europe group approached the ADR for talks. The ADR stated that while it was considering what group the party wanted to belong to if the whole party were fully expelled from the ECR, it was not yet actively discussing membership with any other political group. ==Ideology==