Newly named French defense minister quits after backlash to appointment

Bruno Le Maire, then finance minister, leaves the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysée Presidential Palace in Paris on May 15, 2024. GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP

France's former finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, whose appointment as defense minister precipitated the resignation of premier Sébastien Lecornu, on Monday, October 6, said he was leaving the government in a bid to end the crisis.

The right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party was infuriated by the appointment of Le Maire to the defense post on Sunday, seeing him as the incarnation of President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies.

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