Emmanuel Macron's start-up political party was to announce on Thursday the names of several hundred candidates to do battle in a French parliamentary election that will decide how much power the centrist president-elect will enjoy once in office.
Reflecting on Macron's victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff on Sunday, Valls said it was a blow to populism in Europe that gave a "terrific" image of France overseas. "I will be a candidate in the presidential majority and I wish to join up to his movement, the Republic on the Move".
If Le Pen had won the election and France had exited the EU, that "could've led to the collapse of the union", the official said.
The decisive result favoring Macron laid to rest the idea that Le Pen and her party might be gaining enough strength to surprise with an outlier victory, such as occurred with the vote favoring Brexit and the win by President Donald Trump in the United States.
Mr. Macron has become one of the most powerful leaders in Europe and carrying on political and economic reforms agenda for France as well as for the Europe.
"The Socialist Party is dead and buried", Manuel Valls, a member of the party for almost 40 years said, told French radio station RTL.
It remains to be seen whether Macron's newly renamed "Republique en Marche" (the Republic on the Move) movement will accept Valls as a candidate.
Trump had "wholly appropriate" talks with Russian delegation: National Security Adviser
Sergey Kislyak. "The reports that the President shared sensitive intelligence with Russian officials are deeply disturbing". The New York Times reported that Israel was the provider, though administration officials wouldn't confirm that was true.
The socialists were resoundingly beaten in the first round of the French election on April 23 in which Hamon received only 6.36 percent of the vote.
"We need to stay faithful.to the fundamentals of the National Front", Jean-Marie Len Pen, Marine's 88-year-old estranged father and hardline co-founder of the party, said Sunday.
Pro European centrist leader Emmanuel Macron was elected as President of France last week.
On Monday, the chief of Macron's movement, Richard Ferrand, said it would modify its name to "Republic on the Move" so as to structure itself more like a traditional party.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responds to a question during question period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, May 3, 2017. If another party wins a majority, Macron could be pressured to choose a prime minister from that party.
Hamon said his movement would be launched on July 1, after legislative elections in June that are crucial to Macron's chances of enacting his programme.
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