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3 parties try to form govt in Luxembourg excluding party with most seats in Parliament

Associated Press
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Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker opens the curtain of a polling booth at a polling station in Capellen, Luxembourg, Sunday Oct. 20, 2013. Polls opened in Luxembourg for legislative elections on Sunday, with Prime Minister Juncker hoping to win another term in office after an intelligence scandal brought down his government earlier this year. Juncker is the European Union's longest-serving premier after 18 years in office. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe) (The Associated Press)

Three political parties have opened talks aimed at forming the first coalition government in Luxembourg in four decades that would not include the Christian Democrats.

In Sunday's election the LSAP, DP and Greens parties won a total of 32 seats, enough to form a majority coalition in the country's 60-seat, unicameral Parliament.

LSAP President Alex Bodry said Tuesday "that all three parties have decided to start negotiations to form a coalition" that would exclude the Christian Democrats of Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

Juncker, whose party won 23 seats in the election, is the longest-serving government leader in the 28-nation European Union, having been the prime minister of Luxembourg since 1995.

But his coalition with the LSAP collapsed this summer.