PARIS (Reuters) - French President-elect Emmanuel Macron’s start-up party on Thursday announced a list of 428 candidates, most of them political unknowns, to fight parliamentary elections that will determine his chances of putting his programme into action.

French President elect Emmanuel Macron attends a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the abolition of slavery and to pay tribute to the victims of the slave trade at the Jardins du Luxembourg in Paris, France, May 10, 2017. REUTERS/Eric Feferberg/Pool

The list of candidates, many of them young and half of them women, represented Macron’s first stab at creating a parliamentary power base with his Republic on the Move party to help him push forward with reforms once in office.

But the party has yet to pick dozens of other candidates for the 577 seats at stake in the June elections, hoping more politicians from other parties will switch sides.

And a first sign of a trouble for Macron appeared when his centre-right ally Francois Bayrou signalled he wasn’t happy with the list of candidates, with an aide to Macron saying Bayrou thought he wasn’t getting a good enough deal.

Benjamin Griveaux, a spokesman for Macron, said he was confident this issue would be resolved on Friday. “It will be done in mutual understanding,” he said.

The centrist Macron, 39, formed his own party only last year, and his election victory over the National Front’s Marine Le Pen on Sunday has destroyed the dominance of the centre-left and centre-right parties which have governed France for nearly 60 years.

He now needs a parliamentary majority to press on with his plans to cut state spending, boost investment and create jobs to revitalise the French economy and place it at the heart of a modernised European Union.

“We want to build a majority for change and therefore obtain for Republic on the Move an absolute majority in the National Assembly,” said party secretary general Richard Ferrand, adding officials had combed through more than 19,000 applications.

The door was still open for more potential candidates to apply by next Wednesday, he said.

SPACE FOR EX-PM VALLS

Macron officially takes power as president on Sunday.

He is building a party structure from the wreckage of the Socialists, whose candidate pooled only 6 percent of the presidential vote in the first round, and the moderate wing of the badly bruised conservative party, The Republicans, which drew 20 percent.

The list issued by Republic on the Move on Thursday included 24 outgoing Socialist lawmakers and no conservative ones.

Among the names were Gaspard Gantzer, communications adviser to outgoing President Francois Hollande, and former junior environment minister Barbara Pompili, an ex-Greens lawmaker.

Reflecting Macron’s enthusiasm for tapping into wider civil society, most candidates were completely unknown to journalists picking through the list. They included an ex-fighter pilot and a taekwondo blackbelt.

In a compromise with a political heavyweight who could prove a useful ally for Macron, the party said it would not put up a candidate against Socialist ex-prime minister Manuel Valls, a pro-business figure close to Macron on economic policy, although it also said Valls did not fit the criteria to be a Republic on the Move candidate.

Valls, who said earlier this week he wanted to help Macron achieve a majority, welcomed the move and said he would run as “a free man” backing him.

TOO MANY MEN

To qualify, would-be candidates, including total newcomers to politics, filled out extensive online applications with CVs and explanatory letters for pre-screening and follow-up interviews, according to local media interviews with some of them. The average age of those selected was 46.

Catherine Fabre, a business management lecturer at Bordeaux University, told BFM TV she was running because she wanted to shake things up in a National Assembly which was, in her words, dominated by too many middle-aged white men.

Macron’s victory was seen across the world as a victory for supporters of European Union integration over Le Pen’s anti-EU proposals, which included ditching the euro currency.

But he now needs to consolidate, knowing that many of those who voted for him were driven less by enthusiasm for him than by a desire to stop Le Pen.

A Harris Interactive opinion poll predicted Macron’s party would get, together with Bayrou’s centrist party, the largest share of the vote in the mid-June elections.

After Sunday’s handover, Macron will name an interim team to run day-to-day affairs pending the outcome of the voting, which takes place in two rounds on June 11 and 18.</s>PARIS (AFP) - Tensions over French president-elect Emmanuel Macron's bid to redraw France's political map burst into the open on Friday (May 12) as a key ally was left furious ahead of crucial parliamentary elections next month.

Macron angered fellow centrist Francois Bayrou and faced mockery from his opponents after his La Republique En Marche (REM, The Republic on the Move) party unveiled more than 400 candidates for crucial parliamentary elections in June.

"It's a big recycling operation for the Socialist party," Bayrou told L'Obs magazine, adding bitterly that candidates from his MoDem party had been offered only 35 constituencies instead of the 120 he expected.

Bayrou, a veteran centrist and presidential candidate, threw his and MoDem's support behind Macron at the end of February at a crucial time when the 39-year-old president-elect's campaign needed new momentum.

"When I offered him my support, he was at 18 per cent," Bayrou added.

Macron, who will be inaugurated on Sunday, has promised to refresh France's parliament and his party unveiled 428 out of 577 candidates on Thursday.

Half of them have never held elected office, including a retired female bullfighter and a star mathematician, and half of them are women.

The initial reaction from three out of four voters was positive, a survey published on Friday by the Harris Interactive polling group suggested.

"Probably the biggest success of Emmanuel Macron is having motivated so many people who were outside of politics to have committed themselves to try to renew things," his spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Friday.

But as well as angering Bayrou, REM was forced to correct its list after around 10 people said they had not agreed to stand for the party or had never applied to be a candidate.

One was Mourad Boudjellal, the wealthy president of Toulon rugby club, who said that while he was flattered about being approached, "it is not my ambition" to enter politics.

The vice-president of the far-right National Front, Florian Philippot, accused Macron of "amateurism."

The parliamentary selection process is seen as a tricky and risky balancing act for Macron, who will take over from widely unpopular Socialist Francois Hollande.

Without his own parliamentary majority, the former investment banker will find it hard to push through his planned reforms of the labour market, pensions, unemployment benefits or education.

Macron, a former economy minister in Hollande's government, has so far failed to attract centrist members of the right-wing Republicans party, but still believes some will cross over before next Wednesday.

Before then, he faces other crucial decisions on his staff at the Elysee Palace and his first government.

The most important will be his choice for prime minister, who will head the government until at least the parliamentary elections on June 11 and 18 and perhaps beyond.

Amid feverish speculation in the French media - will he pick a loyal supporter or someone from the right-wing Republicans? - nothing has leaked from his small group of aides.

The choice will send a strong signal about Macron's intentions, and he has promised to pick someone with past experience of parliament and capable of managing a majority. His declared preference is for a woman.

Immediately after his swearing-in, Macron will head to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel to start discussions about his ambitious plans for reforming the European Union.

Macron wants to deepen integration in the 19-country eurozone, giving the zone its own budget, and wants to toughen the EU's response to "unfair" industrial competition from countries such as China.</s>PARIS – Not yet in power, France’s new president is already showing that he has one of the necessary skills for the job: the ability to keep secrets.

Even some of Emmanuel Macron‘s most trusted collaborators say they don’t know who he will name next week as prime minister – the most important first appointment after he takes power on Sunday.

Speculation surrounds a half-dozen names, some fairly well-known, others less so, but the fact that one in particular hasn’t leaked from the president-elect’s inner circle suggests either that Macron still hasn’t made up his mind or that his entourage is particularly disciplined and loyal.

READ MORE: Macron the maverick: 39-year-old is France’s youngest leader since Napoleon

A turning point in Macron’s run for the presidency also offered a clue that the 39-year-old keeps his own counsel and his aides on a tight leash when necessary. In a meeting with members of his campaign team on Feb. 22, Macron told them that he was about to get an endorsement from Francois Bayrou, a centrist former three-time presidential candidate whose support helped boost Macron’s campaign.

Macron ordered his team to keep the news under wraps until Bayrou himself went public with it later that afternoon.

“Don’t tweet or SMS anyone, right, kids?” Macron said, staring around the room and pointing his right index finger – a scene captured in a fly-on-the-wall documentary aired this week by broadcaster TF1.

Among those who say they are in the dark about Macron’s choice of prime minister is Richard Ferrand, a prominent figure of the Macron universe. As secretary-general of the president-elect’s Republic on the Move party, Ferrand is working to secure the parliamentary majority in June legislative elections that Macron will need to govern effectively.

“Frankly, I don’t know,” Ferrand said Friday on BFM television. “And that’s good, because if I knew I’d be obliged to lie to you.”</s>For the next month’s parliamentary elections, French President-elect Emmanuel Macron on Thursday selected a list of 428 candidates including some from civil society and exactly half of all the candidates are women.

Only 24 of those chosen are outgoing MPs from the current parliament, BBC reported.

Some 52 per cent come from civil society and exactly half are women, Richard Ferrand, General Secretary of En Marche, was quoted as saying.

Ferrand said the choices marked “the definitive return of citizens to the heart of our political life”.

Macron still needs to select more than 100 candidates for the 577-seat parliament and the party said its door is open to politicians from other parties to join.

The movement received more than 19,000 applications with 1,700 telephone interviews conducted with candidates.

The average age of the list is 46 “compared to 60 years for the average of outgoing MPs”, Ferrand said.

The youngest candidate is 24-years-old and the oldest is 72. Around 10 candidates are unemployed, double that are retired and a handful are students.</s>President-elect Macron and his French Jewish supporters may be on a collision course

PARIS (JTA) – French Jews may have voted en masse for Emmanuel Macron in the final round of France’s presidential elections, but that doesn’t make him their dream president.

Like many other supporters of the 39-year-old former investment banker, who on Sunday became the youngest French president in recent history, Jews voted for Macron mainly to block his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen. The centrist won with 65 percent of the vote to 34 percent for Le Pen.

Leaders of French Jewry said they were relieved and even “happy” to see Macron elected – but the honeymoon may be short-lived.

A self-declared progressive with a foreign policy rooted in human rights, Macron even during the campaign demonstrated that like his Socialist predecessor, Francois Hollande, he is willing to clash over Israel and Islamism with the conservative and pro-Israel mainstream of French Jewry.

To be sure, the youthful-looking Macron has charmed many voters, Jews and otherwise, on his own merits. He is known for an energetic oratory style, a profound understanding of finance and a passion for inter-European cooperation, and he promises to heal France’s deeply divided society by building a post-partisan consensus based on tolerance.

His good looks, coupled with his apparent devotion to his wife – his former high school teacher, who is 24 years his senior – have endeared him to women especially, according to Elle.

Yet in a town hall meeting on March 22 with hundreds of Jewish voters Macron, an independent politician who had served for two years as Hollande’s industry minister, showed why he and the Jewish mainstream may be on a collision course over Israel and Muslim extremism.

For the first 90 minutes of the meeting, sponsored by the the CRIF Jewish federation, Macron discussed his economic vision lucidly and in great detail. Juggling data and well-chosen anecdotes, he was clearly in his element as he explained his support for free-market labor reforms, greater cooperation with Germany and no new taxes on corporations’ revenue-producing capital.

But then he turned to foreign policy – a weaker subject for the wunderkind who became the first candidate in decades to win a presidential election in France without the support of its main political parties.

“My policy is to continue the current line of French diplomacy,” Macron told the crowd of 700.

To his evident surprise, the promise of continuity did not sit well with his listeners, whose hisses and booing forced him to pause.

“Oh, no?” he mumbled in surprise when the booing started. “Perhaps it’s not your policy, but it is mine,” he said in the unapologetic style that helped him through debates with more seasoned speakers, including former Prime Minister Francois Fillon of The Republicans and the fiery far-left candidate, Jean-Luc Melenchon.

Macron’s attempts to appease the audience by proclaiming his attachment to Israel’s security “as well as to the two-state solution” did not seem to have a particularly mollifying effect.

Apparently unwittingly, he touched one of the raw nerves of French Jewry under Hollande, who has led a firm line – and according to some critics at times even a hostile one – on Israel.

Leaders of French Jewry were especially angry when France voted last year in favor of at least two resolutions by UNESCO, the cultural body of the United Nations, that ignored Judaism’s attachment to Jerusalem. Unusually, the country’s chief rabbi, Haim Korsia, issued a written condemnation of the votes.

CRIF condemned France’s failed bid earlier this year to stage a Middle East peace conference in Paris without Israel’s support. Hollande said France was organizing the conference out of a commitment to peace and as a “friend of Israel,” but CRIF President Francis Kalifat clearly had his doubts.

“Some pretend to be Israel’s friend, but there is no such thing as friendship: There are proofs of friendship,” Kalifat said at a protest rally in January against the summit in front of Israel’s embassy in Paris.

Israel’s refusal to attend the conference ultimately led the Palestinians to pull out. CRIF called the ensuing summit a “grotesque” event in light of international inaction on the wholesale slaughter of civilians in Syria.

French Jewry’s mainstream also objected to France’s leading role within the European Union in singling out Israeli West Bank settlements and their products, and to Socialist Party lawmakers who supported a unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood.

During the town hall meeting, Macron said that like Hollande, he would recognize a Palestinian state only after a negotiated settlement agreed upon by Israel and the Palestinians.

Then there are fears that Macron’s tolerance-driven agenda is too accommodating to Muslim fundamentalists. Many French Jews perceive Islamism as the main threat facing their communities following a string of deadly jihadist attacks on Jewish and non-Jewish targets.

In Macron’s official platform, he speaks of “fighting with determination against all radical streams that distort the values” of Islam. But whereas Le Pen and the right-of-center Fillon proposed concrete punitive steps, including revoking the French nationality of radicals and deporting them, Macron has remained vague, proposing to conduct the fight by “helping French Muslims to achieve the [restructuring] of their institutions.”

Sensing he was losing the audience’s affection, Macron told the CRIF crowd, “Hang on, I can return to the UNESCO vote, which is a different matter.” He added: “It’s a mistake and I condemn it.” But Macron also insisted that the UNESCO vote was a technical glitch, provoking more dismissive boos and laughter from dozens of listeners and an intervention by Kalifat.

“Yes, but there were two votes, Mr. Macron,” Kalifat said. “They were definitely not unintentional.”

Macron also infuriated prominent members of the French Jewish community when he visited a Holocaust monument during the last stretch of the campaign. Although the visit was meant to draw a contrast with the Holocaust denial roots of Le Pen’s party, the prominent French-Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut said Macron’s actions turned the genocide into a “campaign argument.”

Regardless of their differences, Macron is nonetheless someone French Jews can respect, according to Philippe Karsenty, a French Jewish politician and pro-Israel activist who supported Fillon in the first round but switched to Macron against Le Pen.

“I disagree with him on many issues – Israel, his vision of French history,” Karsenty told JTA. “I think he’s too naïve, like former U.S. President Barack Obama or Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But his background is in banking, in business. He’s accomplished. And he understands the power of compromise.”

CAP: A man looking at an Emmanuel Macron poster at the French consulate in Jerusalem, May 7. (Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)</s>A chara, – I am baffled by the unrestrained, uncritical enthusiasm in the Irish media for the election of Emmanuel Macron as president of the French republic. Over three million French voters, 11 per cent of those voting, went to the polling stations to spoil their votes, in protest against the impossible choice between the two extremes of Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron.

Emmanuel Macron got elected with no clear programme, no party, and no deputies in parliament. A career banker turned career politician, he started as a socialist minister before transforming into a particularly extreme form of free-market advocate. A French bank sent a very pro-Macron email to its employees. An employer told his workers who to vote for. No reporting of this and no outrage due to Mr Macron’s heavily financed campaign and his vast network in banks, industry and the media.

In Ireland it is inconceivable that the banks could present a candidate for president, much less get him elected, yet the Irish media outlets think this is great news for France! – Is mise,

Sir, – Further to Tom Neville’s letter (May 10th), Fianna Fáil is not “my” party. I am not a member of any political party.

Mr Neville, who suggests the Fine Gael option to me, might like to know that in my constituency of Dublin Bay South I am a strong supporter of Eoghan Murphy TD, who, like Mr Macron, has a philosophy degree. I am attracted by ideas and principle, from whatever party.

I was merely suggesting that Fianna Fáil, because it actually sits with the liberal grouping in Europe, might be in a better political position than other parties here to advocate for and advance the cause of social liberalism.

By contrast, Fine Gael describes itself as liberal conservative, as well as Christian democratic, and sits with the centre-right European People’s Party.

But surely liberalism, be it left-leaning or rightist, is big enough for us all? – Yours, etc,

Sir, – According to Anne Marie Moran (May 10th), both Emmanuel Macron and President Michael D Higgins have philosophy running through their veins. Is there a cure? – Yours, etc,</s>PARIS, May 12 (Reuters) - Centrist French President elect Emmanuel Macron is open to talks with the main conservative grouping, a top aide said on Friday, a day after his start-up party included a group of Socialists among his candidates for the coming parliamentary election.

Macron, until last year economy minister in the outgoing Socialist administration, has blown apart the traditional political boundaries of French politics by winning the presidential election last Sunday under the banner of his own one-year-old Republic on the Move (REM) party.

"There is a group among The Republicans (France's conservatives) ... saying 'we want to be useful to the country, but we do not want to 'Macronise' ourselves', Macron spokesman Arnaud Leroy said on BFM TV.

"We, being responsible people, are open to discussions. I am not closing any doors."</s>EDITOR’S URGENT ANNOUNCEMENT: Today we are mailing Vern Gowdie’s new market crash survival handbook to any eligible Australian who requests one.

If, like Vern, you have a gnawing feeling something has to give in the markets…and that this ‘give’ could be very ugly indeed…you should have a copy mailed to you ASAP.

We have fewer than 5,000 copies in stock. So don’t wait.

As you will see here, Vern believes the US Federal Reserve Bank will be powerless to stop the market correcting the excesses of recent times. And, because of that, the ensuing losses will be like nothing you’ve seen before. Given that the last two crashes wiped close to 50% from the local stock market, that’s some claim.

How ‘mean’ will the reversion to the mean be? According to Vern, based on previous market conditions when we’ve witnessed peak optimism, this one could be the meanest since 1929.

What are five steps you can take to protect yourself if this happens? They’re outlined in Vern’s book. You can claim one of the 5,000 copies by clicking here.

OK, Marine Le Pen winning the French presidential election was an outside shot. Admittedly, I got it wrong!

Emmanuel Macron won 65% of the vote and became the French president-elect. We thought Le Pen would have pulled off a major upset. Which would have seen our ‘sell stocks and buy gold’ short-term trade recommendation return some handy gains.

But it wasn’t meant to be…

If you read the mainstream media, it was an ‘extraordinary victory’ for Macron. ABC reported yesterday:

The media’s bias towards Le Pen’s party speaks for itself. Nevertheless, their combined influence isn’t as good as they think. Macron didn’t win the hearts of many voters. Abstention hit 26% — the highest rate since 1969 — in Sunday’s election.

The low turnout reflects the lack of enthusiasm among voters. The silent majority is frustrated with those in power and believe their vote means nothing. Perhaps, thinking there was no point in showing up, Le Pen’s supporters weren’t inspired by her first-round win.

My view: This is the beginning of the end for France. What does that mean for financial markets?

The end of the French economy?

The political establishment got what it wanted.

Emmanuel Macron was supported by political figureheads around the world. Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, said Macron would be a ‘strong president’ before the vote. ‘I haven’t the slightest doubt that Macron, should he win, which is what I hope for, would be a strong president,’ Merkel told RND on 23 April.

Former US President Barack Obama also endorsed Macron. The Nation reported over the weekend:

Like Obama knows what’s good for any country… Obama doubled the US national debt in 8 years, started a war in Syria (over a pipeline), didn’t withdraw troops from Afghanistan, and failed to close down Guantanamo Bay, to name a few.

With this impressive list of…um…accomplishments, I’m surprised that people even listen to him anymore.

Obama endorsing Macron means that you should know what to expect — more of the same. That’s because politicians don’t like change. They are addicted to spending money, raising taxes and making outlandish promises that get them re-elected.

Until now, socialists have run France every year since the Second World War. That’s why, as we discussed last week, France boasts one of the highest tax rates in Europe. It’s also one of the slowest growing countries in the EU.

The French unemployment rate stands at 10%, and one in four people under 25 are unemployed.

Surging taxes and rising welfare costs are to blame. Unfortunately, don’t expect anything to change under Macron.

Actually, the situation will probably worsen…

Remember, the former Rothschild investment banker served as the economic minister under former President François Hollande. Hollande boasted the lowest approval rating in French history.

The French should expect higher taxes and more outrageous unfunded promises in the future. That’s not great news for the euro in the medium to long term. As the country’s depression worsens, France will eventually default on its national debts. That’s likely to send the euro to fresh lows against the US dollar.

Yet the faceless leaders of Europe appear clueless…

‘Your victory is a victory for a strong united Europe and for German-French friendship,’ Angela Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted to Macron.

Paolo Gentiloni, the Italian Prime Minister, tweeted: ‘Hurrah Macron President! There is hope for Europe!’

Donald Tusk, Chairman of the European Union, tweeted: ‘Congratulations to French people for choosing Liberty, Equality and Fraternity over tyranny of fake news.’

Tusk should write a how-to guide on Marxism. He’s the body and soul of the political elite that’s brought a major crisis upon Europe. Tusk only cares about the federation of Europe, which will see each member resign its sovereignty. Tusk wants absolute power for the EU, something Marine Le Pen opposed.

Macron is now in charge of Europe’s second largest economy. So, what’s the future look like?

In my view, this victory marks the beginning of the end for Europe’s establishment. Socialism is out of control and set to worsen. That’s likely to trigger a massive sovereign debt crisis beyond anything we’ve seen before.

Indeed, this looks like the beginning of the end for France.

My colleague, Vern Gowdie, has set his sights closer to home with his recently updated book, The End of Australia.

With Europe a basket case, and the rest of the developed world drowning in debt, Vern believes that it will trigger a 70–80% stock market crash. He makes a convincing case. And he offers some of the best advice I’ve ever come across on how to protect your wealth in a world where every asset class — gold, stocks, property…you name it — is plunging in value around you. You can find out exactly what those are here.</s>In an article published in French media, the meddling former Prime Minister branded Macron’s victory an “extraordinary” achievement, and gushed over the Europhile’s “remarkable ideological clarity”. In the piece, he wrote: “Emmanuel Macron founded a movement and took the leadership of one of the world’s major countries in a little over a year.

“He did so, on a platform with remarkable ideological clarity: moving beyond old paradigms of left and right and pitting himself vigorously against the new populism sweeping Western politics.” The diehard Remainer, who has returned to British politics in a desperate attempt to frustrate Britain’s EU exit, also congratulated Mr Macron for defeating what he called the “populist response” to the pitfalls of economic globalisation. He wrote: “The populist response is to ride the anger, to exploit issues like immigration and create an enemy to blame. Transpose the vote for Marine Le Pen with the areas of highest unemployment and the link is clear.

“What Emmanuel Macron grasped, is that the only serious response is not to ignore the concerns which are genuine and understandable; but rather to explain the answers which will truly advance the interests of the people.” The former Labour leader, whose reputation was destroyed by the disastrous war in Iraq, also warned Mr Macron “never to lose the strength of the basic appeal”, and advised him to take advantage of France’s vote for “something new and different”. On policy, Blair added: “The first thing is to analyse what will really move the needle.

“Do the things which really matter was what I learnt. Make sure the policy will truly deliver the result.” The former Labour leader’s intervention in French politics comes amid his incessant calls for Remain voters in Britain to block Brexit. Blair last month confirmed he was backing a campaign to fund candidates who wanted a second Brexit vote in the General Election.</s>PARIS (AP) — The Latest on French presidential transition (all times local):

President-elect Emmanuel Macron’s party has revealed a list of 428 people running for parliament next month — half of them women, most who have never held elected office — as he tries to remake France’s political system.

The secretary-general of Macron’s Republic on the Move, Richard Ferrand, told reporters Thursday that 95 percent of the candidates are not part of the outgoing National Assembly. All 577 seats in the lower house of parliament are up for grabs in the elections.

Ferrand says the average age of Macron’s candidates is 46, compared to 60 for the outgoing assembly. The list includes a few unemployed people and students as well.

Ferrand says the movement received more than 19,000 dossiers from people answering its call for candidates.

One led the elite French police unit that took down an Islamic State cell, another lost a sister in the attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. There is also a computer whizz who started working at age 16, a farmer, a primary school director whose family is known for its sparkling wine, and a journalist who covered conflict in Africa. Their shared goal: to deliver President-elect Emmanuel Macron the parliamentary majority he needs to be effective.

Macron’s Republic on the Move party was unveiling Thursday its eclectic choice of hundreds of candidates for legislative elections in June. Like him, many are new to politics.

An initial batch of 14 legislative candidates previously announced in April gave a taste of how Macron’s grassroots-style movement has sought to recruit from outside of the circle of career politicians. Split 50-50 between men and women, as Macron promised, the 14 included Jean-Michel Fauvergue, who the elite RAID unit during the 2015 siege in which Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a ring leader of the Paris attacks a few days earlier, was killed.

Also in that first batch was Claire Tassadit Houd. Her sister, Djamila, was among the 130 killed in the Nov. 13, 2015, Paris attacks.
French President-elect Emmanuel Macron announces his slate of candidates for the upcoming elections for French Parliament.