The eternal junior

Founded 120 years ago as the Social Democratic Party, which became first the Workers' Party and then the Socialist Workers' Party, i.e., today's LSAP, it is the only one of the three major, traditional parties (the Greens joined only in the mid-1980s) that has never managed to hold the post of prime minister until now.

Wing wars

With the exception of the legislative periods from 1969–1974, 1979–1984 and 1999–2004, the LSAP has had and continues to have uninterrupted government responsibility in recent decades, making it a kind of eternal junior partner. Hopes are now pinned on Paulette Lenert, who, as the country's most popular politician at present – according to opinion polls – could manage to become not only the first Socialist but also the first woman to win the post of head of government in Luxembourg, but a lot of water will be running down the Moselle before the 2023 election date.

What stood out for a while in the LSAP was its tendency to take internal party disputes to the outside world. Starting with the split in the early 1970s, continuing with the squabbles between the left wing (the LSAP had long had a close relationship with the LAV and later OGBL unions) and the not-so-left party leadership in this millennium. Meanwhile, more precisely since the retirement of former Esch mayor Vera Spautz from active politics and the entry of long-time party rebel Dan Kersch first into the Council of State, and then into the government, the trade union wing within the LSAP has been virtually non-existent.