PARIS (AP) — On his first full day in office, French President Emmanuel Macron moved quickly Monday, naming 46-year-old lawmaker Edouard Philippe as his new prime minister before flying off to Berlin for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Appointing Philippe to the top job in his government ticked several boxes for Macron, at 39 France’s youngest president, who took power on Sunday.
Philippe’s age reinforced the generational shift in France’s corridors of power and the image of youthful vigor that Macron is cultivating. Philippe is also relatively unknown to voters, fulfilling Macron’s campaign promise to repopulate French politics with new faces.
Philippe is the mayor of the Normandy port of Le Havre, a trained lawyer and an author of political thrillers. His appointment marks a milestone in the rebuilding of France’s political landscape, which has been dynamited by the election of Macron — the first president of modern France not from the country’s mainstream left or right parties.
Philippe is a member of the mainstream-right Republicans party. As such, Philippe could possibly attract other Republicans to Macron’s cause, as the centrist president works to piece together a majority in parliament to pass his promised economic reforms.
Alain Juppe, a former French prime minister, called Philippe “a man of great talent” with “all the qualities to handle the difficult job.”
Shortly after the announcement, Macron was to travel to Berlin on his first foreign trip as French leader. The visit signaled his intentions to move rapidly on campaign promises to revive support for the beleaguered European Union by reforming and strengthening it.
Speed is becoming one of Macron’s trademarks. Including the “thank you” at the end, the announcement of Philippe’s appointment, delivered by the presidency’s new secretary general , took just eight seconds.
As well as the political coup of poaching Philippe from the right, Macron is also siphoning off support from lawmakers on the left. At least 24 Socialists are now campaigning for re-election under the banner of Macron’s Republic on the Move party.
But not everyone was pleased with Philippe’s announcement.
French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who won nearly 20 percent of the vote in the first round of the presidential election, reacted with hostility.
Voters go to polls again in June to elect 577 National Assembly lawmakers. Melenchon on Monday urged them not to give Macron a parliamentary majority.
“The right has just been annexed, with a prime minister taken from its ranks, from the Republicans,” Melenchon said. “Don’t give full powers to Mr. Macron and his prime minister.”
Macron’s trip to Berlin highlighted his pro-European politics and desire to work with Merkel on what he says must become “a more efficient Europe, a more democratic Europe, a more political Europe.”
Germany is looking to Macron to revitalize France as an economic power and political heavyweight in the EU, which is facing complex divorce proceedings with its current No. 2 economy, Britain.
When Britain leaves the bloc in 2019, France will be the EU’s only member with nuclear weapons and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
As a candidate, Macron called for a “new Franco-German deal” that would involve “much more structured cooperation” on investment, on European border security, and on defense.
Macron is the conservative Merkel’s fourth French president in nearly 12 years as chancellor. She built a solid relationship with Macron’s predecessor, Socialist Francois Hollande, despite their political differences — notably with their joint effort to secure an accord to calm the fighting in eastern Ukraine in tense talks in Minsk, Belarus in 2015.
Germany is keen to continue the Franco-German diplomatic drive to keep a lid on the situation in Ukraine, where Russia-backed separatists are battling the government.
Merkel has praised Macron’s embrace of European unity but has offered few concrete details about the way forward for German-French relations.
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