According to Paperjam, at the LSAP New Year event on Tuesday 9 January, the leader of the LSAP in the October parliamentary elections, Claude Haagen, introduced Schneider as the “lead candidate”, but the official designation must still be decided at an extraordinary meeting in the spring.

The party seems to head towards some heated internal debates ahead of the elections, as its recent opinion polls forecast losing up to 2 seats.

Schneider is not universally appreciated within his own party, as he is too economically liberal for the left wing. Paperjam had published an interview with Schneider on Tuesday 9 January in which he advocated creating a new movement, similar to Emmanuel Macron’s En Marche, which would be a fusion of liberal and left parties to create a bloc against the CSV after the 14 October parliamentary elections. Previously, several LSAP members had published an open letter to the leadership, calling for more engagement with its base and focusing on more traditional left-wing issues, such as social justice.

However, these divergences were not on show at the event, Schneider reassuring the crowd that “We will still smile on 14 October” and that all members should be involved in the election manifesto.

He addressed other issues, such as reforming working time and more support for home buyers, but ruled out reforming the pension system. Schneider also said that the priority for the LSAP in 2018 would be the question of social cohesion.