MACRON REAPPOINTS PHILIPPE AS FRENCH PRIME MINISTER
French President Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Edouard Philippe as prime minister after the weekend’s legislative run-off vote and asked him to form the next government, sources at Macron’s office said.
Sunday’s vote saw Macron’s centrist group, the Republic on the Move (REM), secure a massive victory in the National Assembly, giving him a mandate to pursue a pro-EU, business-friendly agenda.
Philippe has been asked to unveil the new government by Wednesday, the sources said.
Macron, 39, became France’s youngest president in May after a tumultuous campaign in which the mainstream left and conservative parties lost ground and the far-right National Front failed to make a much-touted breakthrough.
Macron’s election was followed, as scheduled, by legislative elections.
REM and its centrist ally MoDem won 350 seats in the 577seat assembly. The conservative opposition, the Republicans, won a total of 130 seats with their allies.
The Socialist Party party of Macron’s predecessor, Francois Hollande, lost more than 250 seats, obtaining just 30.
DEFENCE MINISTER QUITS OVER SCANDAL
France’s newly appointed defence minister Sylvie Goulard has resigned from government after a magistrate launched a preliminary investigation into allegations her party misused European parliament funds.
Goulard, who only took up her post in Emmanuel Macron’s administration a month ago , stepped down on Tuesday. She is the second high-profile minister to go in less than 24 hours.
President Macron has pledged to clean up French politics and public life after a series of scandals that have damaged voter confidence.