French President Emmanuel Macron Reappoints Edouard Philippe as PM
Philippe has been asked to unveil the new government by Wednesday, sources said.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday reappointed Edouard Philippe as prime minister after the weekend's legislative run-off vote and asked him to form the next government, sources at Macron's office said.
Sunday's vote saw Macron's centrist group, the Republic on the Move (REM), secure a massive victory in the National Assembly, giving him a mandate to pursue a pro-EU, business-friendly agenda.
Philippe has been asked to unveil the new government by Wednesday, the sources said.
Philippe, 46, a lawmaker and mayor of the port city of Le Havre, is from the moderate wing of the main centre-right party, The Republicans, and will provide a counterweight to former Socialist members of parliament who have joined Macron's cause.
Macron wants to smash the left-right divide which has dominated France for decades, and his start-up centrist Republic on the Move (REM) party, which is just a year old, needs to forge a wide base of support.
Macron, 39, became France's youngest president in May after a tumultuous campaign in which the mainstream left and conservative parties lost ground and the far-right National Front failed to make a much-touted breakthrough.
(With inputs from PTI and Reuters.)
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