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President keeps François Fillon as prime minister after ratings drop to 35% following pensions unrest
Nicolas Sarkozy today took his first steps in the race to be re-elected France's president in 2012, reshuffling his government and appealing to the disgruntled right wing of his party by keeping François Fillon as prime minister.
For five months, Sarkozy had personally stoked bitter rivalry and infighting within the government as he spurred his ministers to publicly fight each other to keep their jobs. So great was the rush to curry favour with the president that ministers apparently even changed hairstyles and went on diets.
Sarkozy is suffering dire poll ratings and was today attacked for his handling of the reshuffle, with the left likening him him to a king bullying his courtiers. Daniel Cohn-Bendit, a student leader in 1968 and now Europe Ecologie MEP, called Sarkozy "sadistic" in his treatment of his cabinet.
But in the end Sarkozy risked appearing weak by keeping Fillon as prime minister in what amounted to a limited reshuffle despite the months of drama.
He had promised a radical overhaul and a new prime minister to inject momentum into a programme of reforms which French voters have seen as doing little to improve salaries and poor purchasing power. He was forced to stick with Fillon, who has led the government since May 2007, amid pressure from within his own UMP party and opinion polls that showed the prime minister was more popular with the public than Sarkozy.
The two men attempted to put their differences behind them today, preparing for the last 18 months of Sarkozy's current term, which Fillon hinted would focus on jobs and calming the economic fears of the French public.
Fillon, a dry and introverted character, has experienced a personality clash with the volatile Sarkozy. The president often belittled Fillon's role, referring to his prime minister as a mere "collaborator". Sarkozy even hinted in private that he couldn't stand the sight of him. In return, Fillon recently snapped that Sarkozy "is not my mentor".
But the latest opinion poll shows the president has an approval rating of 35%, while Fillon, seen as serious and dependable, has 48%.
Sarkozy is under pressure after mass protests against his pension reform. He is directly threatened by the potential party funding scandal raised by the "Bettencourt affair" – a legal dispute among the L'Oréal cosmetics heirs which threatens to engulf the government.
Already opinion polls have suggested that more than 75% of the public feel a reshuffle is not enough to restore their confidence in the president. But as he finalised his choice of a new cabinet tonight, he was expected to make safe appointments in order to rally his own rightwing base behind an expected bid for re-election in 2012.
Sarkozy was not expected to break with his daring appointments of the past, ousting leftwing figures such as foreign minister Bernard Kouchner and bringing back rightwing figures who would appeal to the party faithful. Alain Juppé, Jacques Chirac's dour prime minister – once suspended from politics after he was convicted of corruption in a party funding scandal – was expected to take a key post.
But Jean-Louis Borloo, the centrist energy minister tipped as a replacement prime minister, raised the spectre of a rift between centrists and rightwingers. He refused a cabinet post and retreated with his supporters to decide whether to run for president himself. He said he wanted to get his freedom back.
Among those expected to leave government was Éric Woerth, the labour minister who is being investigated in the Bettencourt affair, as well as Rama Yade, the popular junior sports minister. Yade was one of Sarkozy's high-profile minority ethnic appointments, but proved defiant of the president. She could nevertheless take a role in his UMP party, which is in crisis after a dire showing in the regional elections earlier this year and a sharp drop in membership.
The left denounced the cabinet change as a damp squib that maintained the status quo and would not impress the public. Paul Quilès, a Socialist former minister, deemed it "a reshuffle for nothing", saying Fillon would be limited to carrying out Sarkozy's orders.
France's quiet man
François Fillon, 56, is an anglophile who relishes the quiet life in the Sarthe with his Welsh wife Penny and their five children. Despite a penchant for driving Ferraris on a racetrack, he is known as France's quiet man: a Gaullist and cool-headed reformist, safe, serious, introverted and almost dull.
The contrast with the tempestuous Sarkozy has made Fillon popular with rightwing voters and, crucially, MPs in the ruling UMP party exasperated by the president's hyperactive style. The quiet mastermind of Sarkozy's election campaign in May 2007, Fillon has served as prime minister since.
At the outset, he was humiliated by public put-downs by Sarkozy, whowith a small band of Elysée advisors, openly took over national affairs himself. Fillon took his revenge by making himself indispensable among the party faithful. He stands square with Sarkozy politically, and stresses the need to reform a "bankrupt" France.
But he recently dared to distance himself from some of the president's most controversial ideas, for example criticising the linking of immigration and crime. Ruthlessly ambitious, Fillon could decide to run as Paris mayor, or even for the presidency in 2017.
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