PARIS, Oct 3, 2018 (News Wires) - France's prime minister on Wednesday assumed responsibility for the country's domestic security after the interior minister resigned in an apparent act of defiance toward President Emmanuel Macron. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe is in charge until a successor to Gerard Collomb, until recently one of Macron's closest political allies, is appointed. In a handover ceremony, Philippe said his main focus would be to ensure "the highest security level" in the country. "We live in difficult times with threats abroad and sometimes on our territory ... It's our role to be up to the task," he said. Government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said a new interior minister would be chosen within "a few days." Macron accepted Collomb's resignation late Tuesday, after initially refusing it the previous day. Collomb insisted he wanted to leave to be able to run for mayor of the city of Lyon in 2020 and made the dispute public by speaking to the French newspaper Le Figaro. During Wednesday's weekly Cabinet meeting, Macron told his ministers that "what's been happening for 48 hours has nothing to do with a political crisis ... what we're going through is related to strictly personal issues," Griveaux said.
