French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday he was launching a new political movement which he wants to be neither of the left or the right, just a year before France's presidential elections.
French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron leaves the Elysee Palace in
Paris, France, following the weekly cabinet meeting, March 24, 2016.
REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes
PARIS: French Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron said on
Wednesday he was launching a new political movement which he wants to be
neither of the left or the right, just a year before France's
presidential elections.
The initiative by one of the Socialist government's most
popular minister is likely to fuel speculation that the former
investment banker is laying the groundwork for grander political
ambitions.
"I have decided to create a new political movement," the
38-year old minister told a gathering in his hometown of Amiens,
northern France, unveiling the name of a group called "En Marche!", or
"Forward!".
"I'm in a left-wing government, unashamedly, ... but I also
want to work with people from the right, who commit to the same values,"
he said at the event, which was closed to the press but broadcast on
Dailymotion, a French internet video service along the lines of YouTube.
The Paris media world has been abuzz with talk that the minister may
have higher political ambitions after young supporters of the former
investment banker launched a think-tank last month.
Macron said the 2017 presidential elections, at which
President Francois Hollande has said he will not stand if he fails to
curb unemployment, were not his priority, but he did not rule out being a
candidate.
"It's not a movement for yet another candidate for the
presidential election, that's not my priority today," Macron said in a
speech.
"But I also see all the things I don't manage to get done,
all the things that are blocked, and this movement is to get beyond
these," he added at a gathering he called a 'citizens meeting' and at
which no journalists were allowed.
The popularity of Hollande and Prime Minister Manuel Valls
has sunk to new lows in opinion polls in recent weeks, prompting some
lawmakers in the Socialist party to call for an open primary to choose
next year's Socialist nominee for the elections.
Macron, who is not an elected politician and became a
minister less than two years ago, remains relatively popular, even
though the pro-business labour reforms he has championed have been
vilified by some of the traditional left-wing voters who helped put
Hollande in power in 2012.
(Reporting by Michel Rose; Editing by Catherine Evans and Andrew Callus)
- Reuters
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