PARIS - French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb on Tuesday said he would quit the government next year in order to participate in the 2020 municipal election.

"The local elections are still far away. I will run in Lyon (central France) if I don't get diagnosed as seriously ill any time before that," Collomb told the French weekly news magazine L'Express.

"I won't be interior minister right up until the last moment. After a certain amount of time it would be better to be totally free for the campaign," he said.

The 71-year-old veteran socialist, who joined the ruling camp in 2017, thought that "ministers who want to run in the 2020 municipal elections should ... leave the government after the European (parliament) elections" scheduled for May 2019.

Collomb served as Lyon's mayor from 2001 to 2017. He joined President Emmanuel Macron's government after emerging as a winner in the last presidential elections.