Macron picks Borne as new French PM

French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed former labour minister Elisabeth Borne to be the country's prime minister.

Borne, 61, joined Macron's party La Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move) in 2017, shortly after it was founded.

Until then she was linked to the Socialist Party.

Borne, who hails from Paris, graduated from an engineering college and has worked for various ministries as well as at the state railway and Paris transport company.

In 2017, Borne became an deputy minister, then minister for ecological change in 2019 and labour minister in 2020.

She succeeds Prime Minister Jean Castex, who resigned from the post with his government earlier on Monday, a customary move for French governments following a presidential election.

Borne is only the second woman to serve as France's prime minister.

Until now, only Edith Cresson has previously filled the post, being in office from May 1991 to April 1992.