SAO PAULO (Reuters) - São Paulo state Governor Geraldo Alckmin is “first in line” to take the Brazilian Social Democracy Party’s (PSDB) nomination for next year’s presidential election, O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper said on Saturday.

In an interview with Estado, PSDB President Tasso Jereissati said a convention scheduled for December would decide a candidate for the October 2018 presidential election. He told Estado that he favored picking a new party president from younger generation of leaders at that convention.

The PSDB is immersed in an internal dispute over the nomination of a competitive candidate for next year’s election. Jereissati emerged as acting head of the centrist party after Senator Aécio Neves, who had been a longtime president of the PSDB and the runner-up in the 2014 ballot, was ensnared in a corruption probe.

Jereissati affirmed that the PSDB supports Brazilian President Michel Temer’s congressional agenda for the economy. He would not say whether the PSDB would exit Temer’s coalition.

Temer has been accused of trying to obstruct a corruption probe but has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Although four government ministers are PSDB members, Jereissati said, the PSDB still sees the need for economic reforms, Estado reported.

Reuters could not immediately reach Jereissati’s media office to confirm his remarks to Estado.