Jolted Sarkozy reshuffles cabinet
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
JOLTED by the defeat of top party leader Alain Juppe, French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday unveiled a new government line-up forced upon him by his rightwing party's less-than-glittering showing in weekend parliamentary elections.
He named ex-finance minister Jean-Louis Borloo as government number two and head of an environmental super-ministry to replace Alain Juppe, a former prime minister who had to resign when he failed to win a seat in last Sunday's vote.
Former agriculture minister Christine Lagarde replaces Borloo at finance, the first woman to take the post, with Michel Barnier taking over from her at agriculture.
Sarkozy added half a dozen junior ministers to the government, some of them from the left and from ethnic minorities in line with his declared policy of "openness".
But most of the 15 ministers, seven of them women, appointed last month after Sarkozy's presidential poll defeat of the Socialist Segolene Royal remain in their posts in the new government.
A special session of the National Assembly is to be convened in late June to push through a first round of reforms, including changes to the tax system aimed at jump-starting the economy and lowering 8.2 per cent unemployment.
Just a month after Sarkozy took over from Jacques Chirac promising major reforms, his UMP party won a National Assembly majority in last Sunday's vote, but its number of seats fell by over 40 and the opposition Socialists made surprise gains.
And in a symbolic blow to the government, Juppe, who is mayor of Bordeaux, lost to a Socialist in his constituency and had to resign from the cabinet.
Sarkozy had brought him back from political exile after his conviction in a party finance scandal that had prevented him from holding public office.Despite the disappointment, Prime Minister Francois Fillon has insisted that the election delivered a "majority for action... What we have said, we will now do, because pledges made to the voter form the basis of national trust". The Socialists were also digesting the news that Royal had split from her long-time partner.AFP
He named ex-finance minister Jean-Louis Borloo as government number two and head of an environmental super-ministry to replace Alain Juppe, a former prime minister who had to resign when he failed to win a seat in last Sunday's vote.
Former agriculture minister Christine Lagarde replaces Borloo at finance, the first woman to take the post, with Michel Barnier taking over from her at agriculture.
Sarkozy added half a dozen junior ministers to the government, some of them from the left and from ethnic minorities in line with his declared policy of "openness".
But most of the 15 ministers, seven of them women, appointed last month after Sarkozy's presidential poll defeat of the Socialist Segolene Royal remain in their posts in the new government.
A special session of the National Assembly is to be convened in late June to push through a first round of reforms, including changes to the tax system aimed at jump-starting the economy and lowering 8.2 per cent unemployment.
Just a month after Sarkozy took over from Jacques Chirac promising major reforms, his UMP party won a National Assembly majority in last Sunday's vote, but its number of seats fell by over 40 and the opposition Socialists made surprise gains.
And in a symbolic blow to the government, Juppe, who is mayor of Bordeaux, lost to a Socialist in his constituency and had to resign from the cabinet.
Sarkozy had brought him back from political exile after his conviction in a party finance scandal that had prevented him from holding public office.Despite the disappointment, Prime Minister Francois Fillon has insisted that the election delivered a "majority for action... What we have said, we will now do, because pledges made to the voter form the basis of national trust". The Socialists were also digesting the news that Royal had split from her long-time partner.AFP
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