Six years ago, the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP) won two seats in the country’s central electoral district.
Francine Closener and Franz Fayot have now been designated to head the LSAP list in the legislative elections in October. The list of 21 candidates, ten women and eleven men, was validated at an extraordinary congress in Beringen near Mersch on Monday evening.
Candidates include Dr Jean-Claude Schmit, head of the Health Directorate and right-hand man of Health Minister Paulette Lenert, and Dr Romain Nati, CEO of the Centre Hospitalier du Luxembourg (CHL) and former member of the State Council. Both physicians will be making their debut in the forthcoming legislative elections.
Cécile Hemmen, MP and former mayor of Weiler-la-Tour, is standing for re-election after having achieved the fifth-best result in 2018, just ahead of Joanne Goebbels.
The LSAP list from the centre includes other well-known names such as Luxembourg City municipal councillors Maxime Miltgen and Gabriel Boisante, Dudelange councillor Fabienne Dimmer, Bissen Mayor David Viaggi, Lorentzweiler Mayor Marguy Kirsch-Hirtt, as well as local politicians Jeff Herr, Claire Delcourt, and Régis Moes.
The other Socialist candidates, most of whom are active in local politics, are Ben Baus, Marvin Caldarella Weis, Elisabete Cerdeira Soares, author Monique Feltgen, maths teacher Paul Klensch, disability and patient rights activist Susanna Van Tonder, and Hesperange councillor Rita Velazquez-Lungi.
In 2018, the LSAP lost one seat in the central constituency and reached 12% (-3%). In comparison, the Socialists still achieved 18% and four seats in the centre in the 2004 and 2009 elections.
The 2023 vote will thus be crucial for the LSAP as they will have to make up for the absence of two political heavyweights, Étienne Schneider and Marc Angel, who at the time had amassed almost 27,000 votes between them. Etienne Schneider even had a lead of around 7,000 votes over Franz Fayot, who came third before joining the government three years ago.
