The French president, Emmanuel Macron, appears to have ditched his centrist allies after two more high-profile government ministers resigned after a month in office. The ministers who quit were from the MoDem party, which rallied to Macron during his presidential campaign but is now at the centre of a parliamentary jobs investigation.

It brought the number of ministers to leave the Macron administration to four in just 48 hours. Days after a second-round legislative vote that gave Macron a clear majority in the lower house of parliament – even without the support of the centrist MoDem party – justice minister François Bayrou, the MoDem president, announced he was standing down. Minutes later, Marielle de Sarnez, minister for European affairs and another MoDem representative, announced she would also go. A government spokesman, Christophe Castaner, said their departure “simplified the situation”. Macron has pledged to clean up politics, while MoDem is caught up in an investigation into the misuse of European funds.(guardian)…[+]