New president bringing a mix of new faces to French parliament

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 longserving 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 potpourri 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 and half are men. Only 5 percent — 24 — 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 the 39-year-old Mr. Macron’s grass-roots, startup-style movement sought to recruit outside the circle of career politicians.

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, a centrist upstart, who won by a landslide.

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.

Mr. Macron also is breaking the role in another respect: He will be the only leader under France’s Fifth Republic to be younger than his partner — wife Brigitte, 64 — a fact that is already stirring a lively and erudite debate about sexism, ageism, masculinity, contemporary marriage, political stagecraft and what a modern French first lady should actually be.