French President François Hollande names allies, moderates to cabinet
May 16, 2012
PARIS — François Hollande, the French president, unveiled a government of mainly moderate Socialists and longtime allies Wednesday as his new prime minister vowed to work quickly to put the country back on its feet.
He also met his promise to appoint an equal number of men and women in his cabinet, a first for France, although most of the senior posts went to men.
Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Mr. Hollande’s new government would waste no time and would hold its first meeting Thursday, despite it being a public holiday, and would address the economic crisis.
“What’s essential, and that’s why the cabinet will meet as soon as Thursday, is to get quickly to work to allow France to get back on its feet in a just way,” he said.
Mr. Hollande tapped former prime minister Laurent Fabius, 65, as foreign minister, while Pierre Moscovici, 54, his campaign chief during the race against Nicolas Sarkozy, becomes finance minister.
Notably absent from the line-up was Martine Aubry, the Socialist leader and former labour minister, a key figure in the party’s old-guard left wing, who said she would not join cabinet after being passed up for the premiership.
Mr. Ayrault said the first order of business Thursday would be the imposition of a 30% pay cut for the president and all ministers, as Mr. Hollande promised in the campaign.
“This is about setting an example,” he told France 2 television.
“I will also propose a code of conduct. Everyone must sign this commitment on conflicts of interest, holding more than one office and not carrying out any other activities.”
Mr. Fabius, prime minister from 1984 to 1986 under France’s last Socialist president, François Mitterrand, will take over French diplomacy at an important time for Paris’s relations with its European neighbours.
With anxiety running high over the fate of the eurozone, Mr. Hollande’s choice of Mr. Moscovici, a former European affairs minister in 1997-2002, as finance minister also seemed aimed at addressing the European debt crisis.
Like Mr. Hollande, who on Tuesday became France’s first Socialist president since 1995, Mr. Ayrault has never previously held a ministerial post, but he is mayor of Nantes, a veteran parliamentarian and seen as a consensus builder.
After meeting on Thursday, the new cabinet will help plan the Socialist strategy for their campaign to win a parliamentary majority in June legislative elections, a key test for the party. This is needed so the government can pass legislation without requiring the support of smaller parties, such as the Communists.
Agence France-Presse
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