Macron’s bid for presidency gathers pace amid scandals

Centrist Emmanuel Macron’s bid for power in France gathered pace on Tuesday when he won support from a junior minister in the Socialist government, while the interior minister resigned amid scandal in a new twist to the topsy- turvy presidential campaign.

Voters rated Macron as the strongest performer of the five leading candidates who took part in the first debate of the presidential election campaign on Monday night, watched by nearly 10 million viewers, according to snap opinion polls.

His front- runner status was reinforced by an endorsement from a junior minister in Socialist President Francois Hollande’s administration, the first government member openly to back the independent politician in preference to the Socialist candidate, Benoit Hamon.

In addition to the endorsement from biodiversity minister Barbara Pompili, of the ecology party, Macron also won backing from Bernard Poignant, a close adviser to Hollande.

The turbulent election campaign was rocked again on Tuesday by the sudden resignation of Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux over press reports he paid his daughters from public funds for summer jobs in parliament when he was a lawmaker.

The hiring of family members by politicians has become a sensitive issue after conservative candidate Francois Fillon became embroiled in a similar scandal over parliamentary assistant jobs for his wife and two of his children. Le Roux quit after financial prosecutors opened an inquiry into him, although he insisted he did nothing wrong.