New faces vie for spot in Macron govt

French politics sees ‘return of the citizen’

PARIS: A female fighter pilot, a farmer, a teacher, people out of work. They all applied for the job — and got it, among more than 19,000 people hoping to become candidates in June elections for the French parliament under the banner of President-elect Emmanuel Macron.

Renewing a political landscape long bogged down with out-of-touch parties and long-serving politicians was a central campaign promise and the eclectic mix of candidates speaks to Mr Macron’s desire to pull the plug on a system he deems broken.

On Thursday, his Republic on the Move party announced an initial slate of 428 candidates for France’s 577-seat National Assembly. It was a pot pourri of citizens, more than half of whom, like Mr Macron, have never held elected office. Their shared goal: to deliver Mr Macron the parliamentary majority he needs to govern effectively and pull France out of its economic doldrums and social funk.

The average age of the candidates who made the cut is 46 — compared to 60 for the outgoing assembly. Half are women. Only 5% were lawmakers in the outgoing parliament, all Socialists.

“Our candidates signal the permanent return of the citizen to the heart of our political life,” party secretary-general Richard Ferrand said in announcing the partial slate.

The candidates offer a taste of how Mr Macron’s grassroots, startup-style movement sought to recruit outside the circle of career politicians.

Among them is Jean-Michel Fauvergue, the commander of the elite Raid police unit that took down the Islamic State cell that carried out the Nov 13, 2015, Paris attacks, including its ring leader Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was killed in the operation.

Another is Claire Tassadit Houd, whose sister, Djamila, was among the 130 people killed in those attacks.

Would-be candidates were asked to sign up on the party’s website and submit a resume and letter explaining their motivation. More than 19,000 applied and resumes are still coming in.

“I signed up right from the beginning,” said Jean-Baptiste Moreau, a 40-year-old farmer who is contesting a seat in the Creuse region of central France.

Mr Moreau said he was drawn by the profile of the 39-year-old Mr Macron, who will be France’s youngest president when he takes office tomorrow, and by the party’s efforts to make grassroots ideas part of its campaign platform.

“If I’m elected, I don’t want to become a political professional. I’ll serve one or two terms,” he said.

Mireille Robert, who heads a primary school in a village of 1,000 people in the Aude region of southwestern France, will be up against a local Socialist Party heavyweight.

In a telephone interview, the 55-yearold Ms Robert said one of her main motives for getting into politics under Mr Macron’s banner is fighting the rise of political extremism in France.

Mr Macron, a centrist upstart, won Sunday’s presidential election by a landslide, defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, who had hoped to ride the wave of rising nationalism in Europe. Despite her defeat, Ms Le Pen achieved the highest-ever score for her National Front party, which has a history of antiSemitism and racism. Far-left leader JeanLuc Melenchon got nearly 20% of the vote in the first round.

In the village of Pieusse where Ms Robert lives, Ms Le Pen received 271 votes in Sunday’s runoff, five more than Mr Macron’s 266.

“That’s really scary,’’ Ms Robert said. “I feel like we are in danger.”

New to politics, she said she plans small gatherings to discuss local issues, rather than hold large rallies with prepared speeches. Her family is well-known in the area for its sparkling wine, which she believes will help her win support.

“Yes, we can,” she said. “It’s going to be a great experience.”

The French political landscape was upended by Sunday’s presidential race, which saw mainstream parties, including the Socialists who had governed for the past five years under outgoing President Francois Hollande, eliminated in favor of the untested Mr Macron.

Mr Macron himself parachuted into his first government position as economy minister in Mr Hollande’s Socialist government from a job as an investment banker, and won election by offering something new.

His party’s parliamentary candidates’ atypical profiles show “a need to renew faces” in a country that has traditionally recycled its politicians for decades, said Mr Macron’s spokesman, Benjamin Griveaux.

Among those who won’t be on the party slate is former Prime Minister Manuel Valls, who resigned in December to make a failed bid to become the presidential candidate of his Socialist Party. He tried to join the ranks of Mr Macron’s legislative candidates but was turned down.

Mr Valls has held three parliamentary terms and is not a member of Mr Macron’s party, making him ineligible under the strict terms the party has set out for candidates.

“We won’t change our criteria, no special treatment,” said Mr Ferrand, the party secretary-general.

But, he added, the party won’t put up a candidate to oppose Mr Valls in his district of Evry, south of Paris. “We note the singularity of this prime minister in office in recent years,” he said.

Jean Launay, a former lawmaker who was involved in the candidate selection process, said a dozen or so others who weren’t selected also won’t face an opponent from Mr Macron’s party. The full list of candidates must be submitted by Friday.

Mr Launay, who spent 19 years as a Socialist lawmaker before joining forces with Mr Macron’s party, dismissed concerns over the lack of political experience of the novice candidates.

“You can’t on the one hand call for political renewal and on the other say `They know nothing!’ I too was a political baby when I got to the National Assembly in 1998. I had to learn everything,” he said. “They’ll learn.”