Macron's party picks ex-minister Castaner as leader in parliament

France's ruling party picked ex-interior minister Christophe Castaner as its new leader in parliament on Thursday, handing the former Socialist the task of healing divisions and helping salvage the president's reform agenda ahead of 2022 elections.

France's ruling party picked ex-interior minister Christophe Castaner as its new leader in parliament on Thursday, handing the former Socialist the task of healing divisions and helping salvage the president's reform agenda ahead of 2022 elections. Emmanuel Macron created La Republique en Marche (LaRem) to propel him to the presidency in 2017, branding the new party "neither right nor left" and promising a centrist revolution.

But the party has been beset by internal squabbles over Macron's pro-business agenda and perceived failure to embark on a greener, more social agenda, resulting in defections from the party's leftist faction that robbed it of an absolute majority. "We must hunt in a pack and forget our differences," LaRem lawmaker Patrick Vignal told Reuters.

LaRem lawmaker Christophe Di Pompeo said Castaner, a former socialist, would give the party a "little swing to the left" in parliament that might help appease disgruntled colleagues. The coronavirus pandemic stalled Macron's drive to create jobs and increase the competitiveness of France's economy.

Earlier this month, his government outlined a 100 billion euros post-pandemic recovery package to haul the country out of an economic slump. But Macron must decide what to do with his plans to overhaul the pension and unemployment benefit systems, which drew waves of protests before the coronavirus crisis and may be politically unpalatable in the run up to elections in spring 2022.

Castaner would need to "restore the party's unified thinking" to prepare the ground for 2022 vote, said LaRem lawmaker Bruno Bonnell.