Ex-French PM exits Socialist Party

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Tuesday announced that he was exiting the outgoing ruling Socialist Party and wants to join President Emmanuel Macron's parliamentary majority.

"I want to sit in the heart of this majority ... Part of my political life comes to an end. I leave the Socialist Party, or the Socialist Party leaves me," Valls told RTL radio.

"I will not sit in the group where there are ambiguities, where they will not vote confidence in the government. I will vote confidence in the government on July 4."

During the campaign for legislative elections held earlier this month, Valls expressed his desire to compete for a seat in the National Assembly under the banner of Macron's The Republic on The Move (LREM) party, reports Xinhua news agency.

Valls, who failed to book a ticket for the Elysee Palace in the left primary earlier this year, has been a member of the Socialist Party for more than three decades.

In an interview with CNEWS television on Tuesday, government spokesperson Christophe Castaner said, "the new generation of the LREM would not welcome him (Valls)".

"It was up to him, if he wanted to engage in this politics, knowing that he will not have an imminent role," he added.

Created in 2016 and described as "neither right nor left", the LREM won a landslide majority in French legislative elections, making it the country's ruling party for the next five years with 308 seats out of 577 in the lower house of parliament.

The majority of representatives of the novice movement are untested faces with different backgrounds.

--IANS

ksk/bg