THE NEW SARKOZY GOVERNMENT
This in from Boz at French Election 2007:
This morning Sarkozy announced his new 15 person government, half the number of before. As if to make a point of not wasting time, there first meeting will be held today at 4:30 pm.
Confirming all expectations, Bernard Kouchner will be Foreign Minister, a bitter rift for the Socialist Party reeling from such a recent defeat.
Former Defense Secretary Michele Alliot-Marie, who once pondered challenging Sarkozy for the UMP presidential nomination, is going to fill Sarkozy's old post at the Interior Ministry.
Rachida Dati, the daughter of North African parents and Sarkozy's former spokeswoman, will become Justice Minister, the first time a senior post has been held by an ethnic minority. All the more interesting, the BBC reports that she "has strongly backed his ideas on affirmative action to counter racial discrimination in the jobs market," a quite un-French way of dealing with racial discrimination. Sarkozy has also scored another victory across party lines by giving the former head of the UDF in parliament, Herve Morin, the Ministry of Defense.
The Socialists have not taken the Kouchner news lying down, although they have as of yet been somewhat muted in response. Benoît Hamon, a Socialist European Deputy, told reporters at party headquarters that:
"He (Kouchner) has thus joined the government of Silvio Berlusconi (...) He is no longer a member of the Socialist Party. I have only one word, it is lamentable. Those who lent themselves (with this) made the choice to weaken the camp to which (...) they owed all."
Francois Fillon's new government assembled this afternoon for its first official meeting, but Sarkozy's "opening" to the left with the nomination of Bernard Kouchner as Foreign Minister has created nothing but bitterness in the Socialist camp. Today Socialist Party chief Francois Hollande himself came out to denounce the move:
"Bernard Kouchner, in entering the government, is no longer a member of the Socialist Party...the pseudo opening...was summarized with an individual adventure, that of Bernard Kouchner, who becomes a minister moreover in a government of the right."
Kouchner, however, appeared confident in his decision:
"If we did not have the feeling, while keeping our convictions, to serve this country, to serve our country, to serve France, we would not have done so. Nobody had forseen this, especially not me, and especially not four days ago.