BREAKING NEWS

New French prime minister's party says appointment ambiguous

PARIS, May 15 - The head of France's main right-wing party reacted coolly on Monday towards the appointment of conservative Edouard Philippe as prime minister, saying it was an ambiguous move and unclear what political line he would follow.
"This is an individual decision. It is not a political agreement," Bernard Accoyer, secretary general of The Republicans party, told journalists, shortly after Philippe was named as prime minister under centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
Macron himself, inaugurated on Sunday, heads a start-up party, Republic on the Move (REM), which is hoping to achieve a majority in parliamentary elections in June.
Referring to "ambiguity" that was now prevailing, Accoyer said: "Will this new prime minister support the candidates of En Marche of the President ... or will he support the candidates of The Republicans-UDI, the candidates of his own political family?"