Macron's bid for French presidency gets a boost

Paris

A JUNIOR French minister backed Emmanuel Macron's presidential campaign on Tuesday, the first government member to do so, just hours after he firmed up his status as favourite in the first of a series of TV debates.

Biodiversity Minister Barbara Pompili, from the Ecology Party, is expected to be the first of a number of ministers in Socialist President Francois Hollande's government to endorse the independent centrist instead of lining up behind Socialist candidate Benoit Hamon.