PARIS, May 17: French President Nicolas Sarkozy named fellow conservative Francois Fillon, a loyal advisor and jogging partner, as prime minister on Thursday to steer through his ambitious social and economic reform programme.
The 53-year-old Fillon, who masterminded Mr Sarkozy’s presidential election programme, is seen as a safe pair of hands whose experience handling unions during pensions reform will be a key asset to the new government.
Mr Fillon, who has a British wife, was appointed and started work one day after 52-year-old Sarkozy took over as head of state from Jacques Chirac.
At a handover ceremony with outgoing head of government Dominique de Villepin, the new prime minister said it was his ‘duty and mandate’ to respect the French people’s vote for a ‘new kind of politics’. “To serve France is to ensure it has a leading place in the coming century, marked by challenges that are sometimes alarming, but which we have every means to overcome if we only recover our passion and trust in the future,” he said.
Underscoring his close relationship with Mr Sarkozy -- and the change of generation in French politics – Mr Fillon turned up in shorts and running shoes at the Elysee palace an hour after the handover ceremony.
The president and prime minister, who were regular running partners throughout the election campaign, were then driven off for a long jog in the Bois de Boulogne park.
Mr Sarkozy returned to work an hour later, sprinting up the steps of the Elysee, while Mr Fillon headed into final consultations on the new government, whose line-up is to be unveiled on Friday.
Mr Sarkozy has promised that half the ministers in the 15-member government will be women.
It is also expected to include as foreign minister maverick Socialist Bernard Kouchner, founder of the Medecins Sans Frontieres and France’s most popular politician. Kouchner was among a string of probable future ministers arriving at the Elysee for talks with Mr Sarkozy.Mr Fillon will lead the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) into parliamentary elections in June aiming for the majority needed to push through reforms.
The government is predicted to include Michele Alliot-Marie -- the outgoing defence minister -- as interior minister while former prime minister Alain Juppe is expected to be at the helm of a new super-ministry for environment, sustainable development, energy and transport.
Popular former employment minister Jean-Louis Borloo is expected to become minister for economic strategy, business and employment.
Another expected appointment is Mr Sarkozy’s campaign spokeswoman Rachida Dati, a 41-year-old tipped for the justice ministry, who would be the first politician of North African origin to hold a top French government post.—AFP
