MOSCOW (Sputnik) - French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb on Monday submitted his resignation letter to President Emmanuel Macron, but the French leader refused to let Collomb step down, Le Figaro newspaper reported on Monday, citing the minister himself.

According to the newspaper, Collomb did not want the Interior Ministry to be destabilized by his decision to present his candidacy at the municipal election in the city of Lyon next summer.

Collomb announced his decision to run for the Lyon mayor's office again in mid-September. The interior minister served as the mayor of Lyon in 2001-2017. Collomb said that he would abandon his ministerial post prior to 2020 to participate in the election campaign.

Previously, another French cabinet minister, Nicolas Hulot, announced that he was resigning from his post, saying he was disappointed with Macron, who didn't do as much in terms of environmental policy as he'd promise.