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After winning a general election at the weekend, Luxembourg’s center-right Christian Social People’s Party (CSV) will lead coalition talks with outgoing Prime Minister Xavier Bettel’s liberal Democratic Party (DP), both parties announced late Monday.
That puts CSV leader Luc Frieden, a former finance minister and ex-president of industry and services lobby Eurochambres, in pole position to become the country’s next prime minister.
“This is obviously a great honor and a great responsibility, as it involves preparing the future of this country. I have accepted this mission,” Frieden said Monday evening after meeting with the Grand Duke of Luxembourg — the country’s head of state — who put him in charge of leading the coalition negotiations.
Bettel, who has been appointed by the DP to lead discussions with Frieden, said his party was “ready to take responsibilities in the future government with Luc Frieden as prime minister.”
Bettel has said he is willing to remain in government even without being prime minister, but there has been speculation that he is gunning for a top European job in Brussels.
If the talks are successful, the new government will have a clear majority, holding 35 out of 60 seats in parliament.
It would also mean a shift to the right from the outgoing liberal coalition, which consists of the DP, the Greens and the Socialists.
Formal coalition talks should begin later this week, according to local media, and are expected to last more than a month.
