Friday

29th Mar 2024

New era begins in French politics

Fresh from his inauguration as the 23rd president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday (17 May) announced a moderate conservative politician to head his new streamlined government.

Francois Fillon, a conservative senator and close advisor who helped run the successful presidential campaign, is seen as a good foil to Mr Sarkozy's brash manner.

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Mr Sarkozy is counting on Mr Fillon's negotiating skills to push through some of the welfare and employment reforms announced during the election campaign.

For his part, Mr Fillon said "There is a demand for change. Never have the risks of inertia been so great for France as they are now in this world in flux where everyone across the world is trying to change quicker than the others, where any delay can be fatal."

In a further attempt to soften the right-wing image he built up during the campaign, the new French president is today set to announce that Bernard Kouchner, a socialist former health minister and co-founder of the NGO, Doctors without Borders, will be foreign minister.

That would be the first time a president has picked someone of different political colours to take on such a senior post.

During his inauguration speech on Wednesday (16 May), Mr Sarkozy, the son of a Hungarian immigrant, said the French people have a right to expect him to keep his promises and referred to the confidence of the people as being "so shaken" and "so fragile."

Indirectly criticising his former political mentor and direct predecessor Jacques Chirac, Mr Sarkozy also promised "to break with past behaviour, with the habitual way of thinking and intellectual conformity, which has done so much harm to our democracy."

While substance remains to be seen, the Sarkozy era is set to bring in a new style of politics.

He has already pledged to halve the size of his cabinet - with half of the ministers to be women - and is set to take on a very executive role in government, causing some French newspapers to wonder what the scope of Mr Fillon's job will be.

A taste of what is to come was already on display on Thursday. After it was announced Mr Fillon would become prime minister, both he and Mr Sarkozy went jogging together.

Meanwhile, during a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel later in the day in Berlin, it was noticeable that Mr Sarkozy addressed her with the less formal "tu."

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