France’s Macron to decide on climate moves after Green city hall wins

French President Emmanuel Macron is due to set out his response to 150 recommendations from a citizens’ convention on climate change.

The centrist president is expected to set out his first steps toward the “economic, green and social” recovery that he promised after the coronavirus epidemic.

The event comes a day after France’s opposition Greens made major gains in local elections, in several cases at the expense of centrist and centre-right pro-Macron candidates.

Green candidates allied with the left captured city halls in Lyon, Bordeaux, Besancon, Annecy and Tours from the centre and centre-right, while Greens also took Strasbourg from the opposition Socialists.

Macron’s centrist La Republique en Marche (LREM), failed to win any major cities. In Paris, where it at first had high hopes, it flopped after a disastrous campaign.

Macron’s centre-right ally, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, did win in the port city of Le Havre.

French media is rife with speculation that the president is planning a major reshuffle that could include ditching Philippe, who has gained popularity during the virus crisis.

Proposals from the citizens’ convention, made up of randomly selected members of the public, include reducing the motorway speed limit from 130 to 110 kilometres per hour, banning genetically modified seeds/creating a criminal offence, ecocide.