France's Macron names half of parliamentary candidates from civil society
PARIS (Reuters) - French President elect Emmanuel Macron on Thursday fulfilled his promise to draw half of the candidates for his Republic on the Move party for June legislative elections from civil society . The party, which had never fought an election until it propelled Macron to the presidency on May 7, also kept a pledge to have a balance of male and female candidates in an announcement by party secretary general Richard Ferrand at a news conference. It named 214 of each sex in a preliminary list of 428 candidates. Ferrand, who said the rest of the candidates it would put up in France's 577 constituencies were still a matter for discussion, added that the party was determined to achieve a working majority in parliament. "We want to build a majority for change and therefore obtain for La Republique en Marche an absolute majority in the national assembly." (Reporting by Michel Rose; Writing by Andrew Callus; Editing by Ingrid Melander)