Emmanuel Macron, head of the political movement En Marche !, or Onwards !, and candidate for the 2017 presidential election, arrives for a debate organised by French private TV channel TF1 in Aubervilliers, outside Paris, France, March 20, 2017. Picture taken March 20, 2017. REUTERS/Patrick Kovarik/Pool
PARIS (Reuters) - A junior French minister backed Emmanuel Macron's presidential campaign on Tuesday, the first member of the government to do so, just hours after he consolidated his status as favourite in the first of a series of TV debates.
The backing of ecology party lawmaker and biodiversity minister Barbara Pompili is expected to be followed by more defections from the government of Socialist President Francois Hollande, in which centrist Macron served as economy minister until last summer.
