Majority French voters favour Macron’s legislative candidates
PARIS: A majority of French voters say they are satisfied with Presidentelect Emmanuel Macron’s list of candidates for the parliamentary election scheduled for June 11 to 18, a poll revealed.
A Harris Interactive survey from RMC radio and Atlantico found that three out of four respondents appreciated the profiles of the party’s contenders in the battle for legislative seats, Xinhua news agency reported.
On Wednesday, the “Republic On the Move”, founded by Macron in April 2016, announced a list including 428 definite names, with 214 female candidates, said Richard Ferrand, the movement’s Secretary-General.
Yet, 52 per cent of the candidates have no previous parliamentary experience.
In addition to the newcomers in politics, Macron’s party wishes to lure candidates from the mainstream parties in a bid to score a large majority out of 577 seats in the National Assembly, the Lower House of the French Parliament.
Centrist “Republic On the Move” party currently has no representative in the assembly.
Macron won France’s presidential elections on May 7 with 65 per cent of the run-off vote, defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. He will be sworn in on Sunday at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace.
Meanwhile, a German government spokesman on Friday announced Macron will visit Germany on May 15.
Macron will be received by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin the day after, according to German government spokesman Steffen Seibert, Xinhua reported.
The detailed agenda of the meeting was not disclosed.
However, a range of topics were expected at the meeting, among them, EU’s fiscal discipline as well as French economic reform.
Macron had earlier stressed his “common ground” with Merkel on these issues.
Merkel earlier said she was “very happy” about Macron’s victory, and pledged to continue Germany’s close cooperation with France.