Macron loyalist picked to fix budget mess in new French government

PARIS (Reuters) -French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu on Sunday named Roland Lescure, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, as finance minister in a new government that political rivals threatened to topple quickly if it failed to break with past Macron policies. Lescure, who was swift to rally behind Macron when he first ran for the presidency in 2017, briefly spent time in the Socialist Party early in his career. While his nomination was widely seen as a nod to the left ahead of further delicate cross-party budget negotiations, left-wing lawmakers were unimpressed.