) is a retired Luxembourg

Luxembourg

Luxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany. It has two principal regions: the Oesling in the North as part of the Ardennes massif, and the Gutland in the south...

ian politician and trade unionist. A member of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party

Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party

The Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party , abbreviated to LSAP or POSL, is a social democratic political party in Luxembourg.The LSAP is the second-largest party in the Chamber of Deputies, having won 13 of 60 seats at the 2009 election, and has one seat in the European Parliament...

, Rech served as Mayor of Dudelange between 1985 and 1993.

Born as one of six children in northern Italy, Rech's parents emigrated to Dudelange

Dudelange

Dudelange is a commune with city status in southern Luxembourg. It is the fourth-most populous commune, with over 18,300 inhabitants. Dudelange is situated close to the border to France....

, in southern Luxembourg, when he was one year old, in order for Rech's father to work in the Arbed

Arbed

ARBED was a major Luxembourg-based steel and iron producing company. Created in 1911 after the merger of three steel producing companies, ARBED was a major actor in the economic history of the Grand-Duchy until it merged in 2002 with two other European steel companies to create Arcelor.- Origins ...

 steel mill

Steel mill

A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel.Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon. It is produced in a two-stage process. First, iron ore is reduced or smelted with coke and limestone in a blast furnace, producing molten iron which is either cast into pig iron or...

. They lived in Dudelange's Italian Quarter, speaking Italian

Italian language

Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...

 in everyday life and retaining Italian traditions. Despite this, Rech didn't return to Italy until the age of 35, having naturalised as a Luxembourgian citizen in 1956.

Rech progressed from the trade union movement to involvement in the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party (LSAP). In 1985, he became Mayor of Dudelange, becoming the first Italian Luxembourger to hold the position of mayor in any commune.

Footnotes