Act II for France’s Macron: Getting majority to govern

Associated Press

PARIS

Freshly elected to the French presidency, Emmanuel Macron now faces an equally difficult Act II: securing the parliamentary majority he needs to make good on his campaign promises to lift France out of economic gloom.

With legislative elections five weeks away, the start-up political movement the 39-year-old former investment banker launched one year ago on his meteoric ride to become France’s youngest president lost no time Monday in girding for the crucial mid-June election battle.

Without a working majority, Macron could quickly become a lame-duck president, unable to push through labor reforms and other measures he promised to the broadly disgruntled electorate – shown by a record result for his defeated far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, and a record number of blank and spoiled ballots in Sunday’s runoff vote.

The transfer of power to Macron will take place Sunday, outgoing President Francois Hollande announced.

In other news, police poured into Paris’ Gare du Nord station late Monday, evacuating passengers from platforms and sealing off the area for several hours in a new security scare to hit the French capital.

Paris police spokeswoman Johanna Primevert told The Associated Press that the operation was aimed at “removing doubt” and ended with no arrests, but she would not say what prompted it. A station employee said the operation focused on a train from Valenciennes in northern France.

France is under a state of emergency imposed after a series of Islamic extremist attacks.