[3] Following the 2013 general election, he took office as prime minister and succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker of the Christian Social People's Party (CSV).
[4][5] He received the most personal votes in the 2023 elections[6] and is frequently ranked as the most popular politician in the country, with an approval rating of 77% as of a December 2024 poll.
[11] After completing his secondary school studies at Lycée Hélène Boucher in Thionville,[12] Bettel obtained a master's degree in Public and European Law and a DEA in Political Science and Public Law from Nancy 2 University in Nancy, France.
[8] For four years in the early 2000s he hosted Sonndes em 8, a weekly talkshow, on the now-defunct private T.TV television network.
[2] On 28 November 2005, after the municipal elections in which he was placed fourth on the DP list, Bettel was appointed échevin (alderman) in the council of Luxembourg City.
Thus, with Lydie Polfer and Anne Brasseur vacating their seats to take roles in the government, as well as Colette Flesch not taking her seat so as to focus on her role as Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Bettel was appointed to the Chamber of Deputies, starting 12 August 1999.
He began his second term when his government was formed on 5 December 2018,[25] which he led with co-Deputy Prime Ministers François Bausch and Dan Kersch.
On 16 September 2019, following a short bilateral meeting on the status of Brexit negotiations, Bettel continued a press conference without British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, after Johnson abruptly pulled out due to an anti-Brexit protest held by British citizens living in Luxembourg.
[27] This being despite the public pronouncements of Prime Minister Johnson and the UK's departure date from the EU fast approaching.
[26][27][29][30][31][32] On 29 February 2020, all of Luxembourg's public transport became free of charge as a result of the Bettel II government coalition agreement.
[33] Bettel was appointed Deputy Prime Minister in the Frieden-Bettel Government, after the coalition lost the 2023 election and only gained 29 seats.
[37] He was one of four openly gay world leaders in office, the others being Ana Brnabić, the Prime Minister of Serbia, Leo Varadkar, the Taoiseach of Ireland, and Edgars Rinkēvičs, the President of Latvia.
[42] On 7 July 2021, the government said that Bettel would remain hospitalised a "little bit longer" due to low saturation of oxygen in his blood and that he was recovering "little by little".