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France's Macron to reveal candidates with vow for equality France's Macron reveals gender equal list of political outsiders
(about 3 hours later)
The party of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron is to unveil the names of hundreds of candidates for parliamentary elections next month. The party of French President-elect Emmanuel Macron has unveiled the names of 428 candidates for parliamentary elections next month.
Mr Macron has promised that half will be women, and half from civil society. Only 24 of those chosen are outgoing MPs from the current parliament.
He has already turned down ex-cabinet colleague Manuel Valls - the former prime minister who has now burned his boats with his Socialists. Some 52% come from civil society and exactly half are women, the secretary-general of La République En Marche (Republic on the Move) said.
Now France waits to see if the party list will show by example how Mr Macron plans to clean up France's public life. Richard Ferrand said the choices marked "the definitive return of citizens to the heart of our political life".
Why now? The movement received more than 19,000 applications, Mr Ferrand said at a news conference, with 1,700 telephone interviews conducted with candidates.
The average age of the list is 46 "compared to 60 years for the average of outgoing MPs", he said.
The youngest candidate is 24 years old, while the oldest is 72.
Mr Ferrand confirmed that Mr Macron's ex-cabinet colleague Manuel Valls - the former prime minister who has now burned his boats with his Socialists - had not been selected.
But the party will not be running a candidate against him.
France had been waiting to see if the party list would live up to Mr Macron's pledge to clean up France's public life.
Why are the candidates being unveiled now?
Mr Macron was only elected on Sunday and the two-round parliamentary vote takes place on 11 and 18 June. But with only one month to go, every political party is now focusing on the race for the National Assembly.Mr Macron was only elected on Sunday and the two-round parliamentary vote takes place on 11 and 18 June. But with only one month to go, every political party is now focusing on the race for the National Assembly.
His En Marche (On the move) party, now rebranded as La République en marche, is only 13 months old and has no MPs, and he needs to show he will have not just a mandate but the power in parliament to push through his programme. His recently rebranded party is only 13 months old and has no MPs, and he needs to show he will have not just a mandate but the power in parliament to push through his programme.
Who will Macron choose? Are there still more to be selected?
The next president wants to fight all of France's 577 constituencies, but the party will only announce around 450 on Thursday. Party officials have had over 15,000 applications, and more than 1,000 of those have added their names this week. The next president wants to fight all of France's 577 constituencies, but only 428 candidates were announced on Thursday (214 men and 214 women).
So far we only know 14 names and we can expect few of the others to be known nationally. Nearly 20,000 people applied and a few thousand only added their names in the last few days following the election.
They include: Some of the names announced so far include:
How are the candidates chosen?How are the candidates chosen?
We know the Macron team have set out five conditions:We know the Macron team have set out five conditions:
What's wrong with Manuel Valls?What's wrong with Manuel Valls?
When the Socialist ex-prime minister announced this week that his own party was dead and he wanted to be a candidate for the new president's party, the initial response was lukewarm - and then he was turned down for not yet "meeting the criteria". When the Socialist ex-prime minister announced this week that his own party was dead and he wanted to be a candidate for the new president's party, the initial response was lukewarm - and then he was turned down for not yet "meeting the criteria".
Jean-Paul Delevoye, who has headed a nine-member team in charge of selecting the 577 candidates, said that partly it was because they already had a candidate for his constituency. However he also said it wasn't "appropriate" for the party.
Opponents have seized on the decision as treachery, and by Wednesday Twitter was alive with the hashtag #VallsEnMarcheVersPoleEmploi (Valls on the move to the job centre).Opponents have seized on the decision as treachery, and by Wednesday Twitter was alive with the hashtag #VallsEnMarcheVersPoleEmploi (Valls on the move to the job centre).
Republican party leader François Baroin said the way Mr Valls had been treated "revealed a great deal about the sectarian spirit of a movement that wanted to be modern but in three days in its methods already belonged to the past".Republican party leader François Baroin said the way Mr Valls had been treated "revealed a great deal about the sectarian spirit of a movement that wanted to be modern but in three days in its methods already belonged to the past".