French ex-premier pledges allegiance to Macron's movement

PARIS (AP) - Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls says France's Socialist party "is dead" and that he wants to run under the banner of President-elect Emmanuel Macron's political movement in June's parliamentary elections.

Valls, a center-leaning politician in favor of relaxing labor protections, had already thrown his support behind Macron before the presidential election after losing to Benoit Hamon in the Socialist primary.

Valls told RTL radio on Tuesday that Macron's victory over far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff on Sunday was a blow to populism in Europe, and gave a "terrific" image of France abroad.

Valls said that "I will be a candidate in the presidential majority and I wish to join up to his movement, the Republic on the Move."