PARIS (AP) – President-elect Emmanuel Macron promised France that his new movement would reinvigorate politics by bringing in figures from a much wider array of society. On Saturday, candidates running under his banner got to see just how different they are from politics as usual.
The candidates gathered in Paris for a training workshop for June’s crucial parliamentary election.
He has promised to renew France’s political landscape with new figures coming from business, associative sectors.. The workshop comes a day before Macron is sworn into office.
His Republic on the Move movement has announced an initial list of 428 candidates for the 577 seats up for grabs in France’s lower house of parliament. Many are newcomers in politics. The average age of the candidates is 46, compared to 60 for the outgoing assembly. Half of them are women. Only 24 are lawmakers running for reelection, all Socialists.
A former economy minister, Macron quit President Francois Hollande’s Socialist government last year to launch his independent presidential bid. He is the first French president who doesn’t originate from one of the country’s mainstream parties.