From Thursday onwards, both the Labour Ministry and the Sports Ministry will have new leadership. Marc Spautz will succeed Georges Mischo at the Labour Ministry, while current Agriculture Minister Martine Hansen will also take on responsibility for the Sports Ministry. On Wednesday evening, the CSV National Council unanimously approved the proposals put forward by CSV party president and Prime Minister Luc Frieden.
At the same time, the party needed a new parliamentary group president. Bettembourg’s Deputy Mayor Laurent Zeimet stepped into the role, and immediately set himself apart by jokingly referring to his new function as that of a “diva manager”, a first for the CSV.
This is not a title that the press has come up with, but one that Laurent Zeimet gave himself in his first interview as parliamentary group president, when speaking about his new position certainly being a challenge.
“I also said this to my colleagues, I know them and we have worked together in the parliamentary group for two years now, 20 strong characters, and every politician is at times a diva and the group leader has to manage that of course, so you are also a bit of a diva manager so to speak and it is natural that in the situation we are in now, we have to deal with it.”
Such statements please party chairman Luc Frieden. He congratulates the group on its decision and emphasises how important cooperation with the faction chairman is:
“A government needs good cooperation with the faction to get laws through parliament and I think Laurent Zeimet, who is an ideal choice due to his training as a lawyer, his work as a journalist, his broad knowledge, his competence, which he demonstrates again and again in parliament.”
Equally, the CSV leader had a lot of praise for the new member of the Frieden-Bettel government too. Future Minister of Labour Marc Spautz will be sworn in by the Grand Duke at 11am on Thursday. On his new role, he says that it will be a great challenge, but he is optimistic that he will be able to relaunch the social dialogue. However, he believes that this will not happen overnight:
“It’s very difficult when you have to negotiate with one another bilaterally. It’s easier to do it in a group afterwards. We have to try to resolve all the difficulties that were there in the conversation. I think we should talk to each other and not just at each other. That will certainly help us get things back on track.”
PM Frieden also paid tribute to Minister Martine Hansen. In agriculture, you could see that she was a woman who approached the subjects with passion, and Luc Frieden is sure that she will do the same for sports. Martine Hansen herself says that she has plenty of energy to give:
“I now have three ministries and I want to give everything, my best, in these three ministries. I said I have stamina, sport has already helped me there and that stamina will also help me here for the three portfolios, and these are three important ministries and I will give my best, I will give everything.”
After a somewhat turbulent year, for PM Luc Frieden, the new year will start off strong.
