The right of centre CSV has chosen the head of its parliamentary faction, Claude Wiseler, to lead the party in its next general election campaign.

The CSV’s national council met on Monday evening to select the lead candidate from four hopefuls–Wiseler was challenged by former finance and justice minister Luc Frieden, former European Commissioner Vivian Reding and former higher education minister Martine Hansen. But at the assembly in Cents, Wiseler won a convincing 91% of the vote.

A 56-year old father of three, Wiseler was born and raised in Luxembourg City and, like many career politicians, attended the Athénée high school. Unlike many politicians, however, he studied the arts at university, completing a degree in literature in Paris before returning to his alma mater to teach. He became general secretary of the CSV in 1995 and was an advisor on education matters to the first government under prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker.

He was elected a member of parliament in 1999 and four months later was also elected onto Luxembourg City council, where he served as an alderman in the DP-CSV coalition under mayor Paul Helminger. After the following general elections in 2004, Wiseler placed so strongly in the Centre constituency that he was appointed to cabinet, as minister for public works and for civil service reform. Later, after the 2009 elections, he was the first minister to take charge of the newly formed ministry for sustainable development and infrastructure.

Wiseler has been the head of the CSV parliamentary faction since October 2014 and has been a vocal leader of the main opposition party in the Chamber of Deputies. He was an opponent of the government’s proposal to give foreign residents who met certain criteria a vote in parliamentary elections, although he did also call for making obtaining citizenship easier.

Luc Frieden, who returned to Luxembourg a few months ago after two years in London, has been chosen to lead the CSV in the European Parliament elections in May 2019 and will not stand for election to the Chamber of Deputies.