1ST LEAD Macron yields to minister's resignation amid opposition criticism By Pol O Gradaigh, dpa

Paris (dpa) - French President Emmanuel Macron was Tuesday forced to accept the resignation of Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, who last month said he wanted to go back to his previous job as mayor of Lyon.Collomb, 71, had sparked criticism from the conservative opposition when he said in mid-September that he planned to step down next year in order to run for mayor of Lyon in local elections in 2020.The opposition accused Macron of keeping a lame duck minister in charge of France‘s internal security when the country remains on high alert for terrorist attacks, which have cost more than 240 lives since early 2015.Amid the furore, Collomb offered Macron his resignation on Monday, and the president refused it. But on Tuesday, the minister told newspaper Le Figaro that he still wanted to resign, forcing Macron‘s hand.A source in the Elysee said Tuesday that Macron had noted Collomb‘s resignation and expected Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to propose a replacement.The saga is the latest political blow to the centrist president, who is performing poorly in opinion polls and has now lost his two most senior ministers in less than six weeks.After a summer marred by scandal over a presidential aide‘s alleged assault on protesters, popular environment minister Nicolas Hulot resigned live on air in late August, saying the government was not moving quickly enough on ecological issues.At a rowdy session of the National Assembly on Tuesday, Philippe insisted that the government remained focused on security issues, pointing to searches and arrests carried out early Tuesday at an Islamic organization in northern France.The government was moving ahead with plans to recruit extra police and gendarmes, and "the security of our fellow citizens" remained "at the heart of our action as a government," Philippe said.But conservative lawmaker Eric Ciotti, speaking before Collomb doubled down on his resignation, mocked Philippe for having "an interior minister who is already outside the government."Macron, meanwhile, has sought to shore up his popularity with moves such as the recent announcement of a plan against poverty.Last week he toured the French Caribbean islands that were hard hit last year by Hurricane Irma, speaking to locals and promising more state action to speed up reconstruction.