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France's Sarkozy names PM on first day in charge
2007-05-17
French President Nicolas Sarkozy named Francois Fillon as prime minister on Thursday, banking on the moderate conservative's negotiating skills with trade unions to ease the passage of his programme of reforms. Shortly after taking over from Jacques Chirac on Wednesday, Sarkozy underscored his intention to carry out a series of reforms, such as modernizing the country's inflexible economy, which the prime minister will be in charge of implementing. "The president named Mr Francois Fillon as prime minister and has tasked him with forming a new government," Sarkozy's office said in a statement on his first full day in office,. Fillon, 53, masterminded Sarkozy's campaign and worked with powerful trade unions as social affairs minister to push through sensitive pension reforms in 2003, making him a natural choice to spearhead changes to labor laws and the pensions system. Sarkozy and Fillon held a breakfast meeting on Thursday just hours before the new prime minister was due to take office in a ceremony at 0900 GMT. "The French have had enough of nothing ever improving in their daily lives," Sarkozy said in his inaugural speech at the president's Elysee palace shortly after Wednesday's handover. "The people have entrusted me with a mandate. I will fulfill it. I will fulfill it scrupulously." To do that, he will need to secure a majority in next month's parliamentary election or face the prospect of 'cohabiting' with a left-wing government, which would compromise his reform agenda. An IPSOS poll on Wednesday put support for his UMP party at 40 percent, an improvement of 1.5 points compared to the last election in 2002, which the right won. The opposition Socialists and their allies were roughly unchanged at 28 percent. OPEN NEGOTIATION Thursday is a public holiday in France but it is Sarkozy's first day at work. Fillon's openness to negotiation with the unions is a key asset, and one that will be crucial in pushing through reforms. Union leaders have said the fact Sarkozy won 53 percent of the vote in the May 6 presidential run-off ballot did not mean they had to accept the measures in his programme. Sarkozy's cabinet, which is expected to be unveiled on Friday, will also want to avoid a repeat of last year's botched youth labor reforms, which Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was forced to withdraw after nationwide protests. Sarkozy has pledged to pick a streamlined cabinet of 15 ministers and has said that half the members will be women. Speculation has mounted over who will occupy key posts, but most appointees remain unclear, the most likely pick being left-winger Bernard Kouchner for foreign minister, a surprise move that ties in with a pledge to focus on human rights. Fillon will take over from Villepin, who has already resigned, at Thursday morning's handover ceremony.
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