French President-elect Emmanuel Macron's start-up party on Thursday announced a list of 428 candidates, majority political unknowns, to fight parliamentary elections that will determine his chances of putting his programme into action.
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.
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.
Merkel has already backed Macron's call for a new European investment programme to boost growth, saying she respected the enormous tasks facing 39-year-old Macron as he seeks to boost his nation's economy and overcome the sense of political malaise gripping the country.
Macron won France's presidential elections on May 7 with 65 percent of the run-off vote, defeating far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Sara was once married to the tennis star Henri Leconte.
A veteran centrist and presidential candidate, Bayrou threw his support behind Macron at the end of February, a crucial time when the En Marche! campaign needed new momentum.
Muslim comedian Minhaj kills it at the White House Correspondents' Dinner
Think about it, it's nearly - what is it, 11? Because Donald Trump doesn't care about free speech. "He tweets at 3 AM... sober". No one one wanted to do this, so, of course, it falls in the hands of an immigrant. "That's how it always goes down".
On Wednesday, the "Republic On the Move" founded by Macron in April 2016, announced a list included 428 definite names, with 214 female candidates, said Richard Ferrand, the movement's secretary general. I know who Gilbert Collard is.
"We got him elected", Bayrou told L'Obs.
The outgoing Socialist president, François Hollande, faced criticism for giving his ex-girlfriend, the journalist Valérie Trierweiler, an Elysée office and a staff, without clarifying her exact role.
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.
Yet, 52 per cent of the candidates have no previous parliamentary experience.
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