- Title: France's Macron plans to take parliament as poll ratings rise
- Date: 19th January 2017
- Summary: PHOTOGRAPH OF MACRON SURROUNDED BY SUPPORTERS
- Embargoed: 2nd February 2017 13:37
- Keywords: Macron France election presidential poll parliamentary
- Location: PARIS, FRANCE
- City: PARIS, FRANCE
- Country: France
- Topics: Government/Politics,Elections/Voting
- Reuters ID: LVA0025ZQZBRB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: With favourable poll ratings and his Socialist competitors in disarray, French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday (January 19) that he planned to field candidates across the country in parliamentary elections set to take place later in the year.
A poll carried out by Cevipof and published in newspaper "Le Monde" on Thursday showed Macron polling between 17 and 21 percent of the vote, depending on who he faces, in presidential elections to be held in the spring.
In recent weeks the 39 year-old ex-economy minister has cemented his position as the third man in the race, against the conservative's Francois Fillon and the far right's Marine Le Pen.
Speaking to the media on Thursday, he said candidates from his political movement "En Marche!" ("Onwards!") would contest every constituency in the legislative elections in June which follow the presidential poll.
"From today, we are inviting candidates to come forward for the parliamentary elections. All members of the movement or those who would like to join it can sign up online from today," he said.
""En Marche!" is there to welcome and represent applications from citizens who are politically engaged. They can be Socialists, radicals, Ecologists, centrists or Republicans as long as they agree with our programme," he added.
While there are no polls yet for the parliamentary elections, he is well ahead of Hollande's Socialists in opinion polls for the presidential ballot, triggering speculation that he will win sizeable backing from Socialist lawmakers.
Macron said that 185,000 people have now signed up for his movement and he has been holding well-attended rallies across the country.
At the nerve centre of the organisation in southern Paris, volunteers, many young students, field calls and emails from the curious.
"Particularly when you're in here I really feel like we're in a young political start up. We do things completely differently, there are lots of us, the organisation is very horizontal, there's no hierarchy which is very nice. And then there's the personality of Emmanuel Macron which appeals to all of us here, his youth but also his political bravery," political science student Maelle Charreau told Reuters TV.
Macron organised his news conference hours before former colleagues in the ruling Socialist party were due to hold the last of their televised debates in a primary campaign to pick their candidate for president. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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