The meeting of the 37 members of the CSV's national committee promised to be epic, stormy, decisive, while the controversy had taken time to mount over the weekend. The main topic of the day: president Frank Engel's statements in an interview with Reporter about tax justice and his support for the reintroduction of the wealth tax, the creation of a financial transaction tax and even a reform of inheritance tax in the direct line.

This was a surprising about-turn with the party's historical positions, in contradiction with the recent electoral programme of 2018. And several deputies did not fail to point out this faux pas. A press release from the party, in theory from Engel himself, even stated that it disassociated itself from the words of the former MEP.

Would Engel be forced to resign, as an editorial in the Wort urged him to do? Or would the party smooth things over and come out of the rut united as never before?

The meeting started at 6pm, lasted three hours and ended with a well-respected motto: “We'll keep our mouths shut and it’s Engel himself who will communicate on the content of the long videoconference.” For his part, the president of the CSV chose to speak on RTL, where he will be the guest of the editorial staff this morning.

“Le Journal” reports, however, that the meeting “took place without any major uproar”, with each of the 37 members of the committee being invited to present their point of view. “He understood that his way of acting was unfortunate,” says a source quoted by the Esch-sur-Alzette daily. “He apologised”. And the party has learned the lesson about internal communication. It remains to be seen whether Engel will be able to stick to it.

This article was originally published in French on Paperjam.lu