French President Jacques Chirac named Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as his finance minister in a government reshuffle on Wednesday, handing him the key task of pushing through economic reforms.
A presidential aide read out the new government list on the steps of Chirac's presidential palace.
Chirac had already re-appointed Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. He named Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin as the new interior minister and appointed Michel Barnier, a European Union commissioner, to be foreign minister.
Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie kept her job in the reshuffle, unveiled after the ruling conservatives suffered a heavy defeat at the hands of the left-wing opposition in regional elections this month.
Sarkozy, 49, is expected to have wider powers than his predecessor, Francis Mer, which will give him a major role in overseeing cost-cutting reforms.
Opinion polls regularly show Sarkozy is the most popular politician in France. He is also an ambitious and energetic man whose overt desire to become president has strained his relations with Chirac.
The job of trying to keeping France on the road to economic growth and limiting public discontent with the reforms will be tough, and could make or break his goal of becoming president.
Comments
Comments are closed.