Weakened Chirac gambles on Villepin
Outcry at choice for premier
Jon Henley in Paris
Wednesday June 1, 2005
Guardian
A badly weakened President Jacques Chirac named Dominique de Villepin, his longstanding ally, as France's new prime minister yesterday in what commentators and opponents alike described as an error of historic proportions.
The elegant interior minister and former foreign secretary, known for his stirring UN speeches in defence of France's opposition to the Iraq war, replaces Jean-Pierre Raffarin in a shakeup after the government's crushing defeat in Sunday's referendum on the EU constitution.
Mr Chirac also appointed Nicolas Sarkozy minister of state or number two in the new government, a role that government sources said France's most popular politician would most likely fill from the high-profile interior ministry while remaining leader of the ruling UMP party.
That appointment, analysts agree, sets up a potentially divisive struggle between Mr Sarkozy, a longstanding Chirac foe, and the new prime minister for the right's nomination in the 2007 presidential elections. Not many would put money on Mr Villepin winning.
In a live television broadcast, Mr Chirac said the result of Sunday's referendum had opened up "a period of difficulty and uncertainty" for Europe and for France. He said he had heard voters' "demand for action, demand for results" and made France's national priority "the battle for jobs".
The battle, he added, would be fought "according to our French model, which is not an Anglo-Saxon model but is based on dialogue and national solidarity ... We must win the battle for jobs while resting faithful to our values". Mr Villepin had the "authority, competence and experience" to do the job, the president said.
Mr Villepin, 51, faces the unenviable task of reshaping the centre-right administration's policies after a referendum used by many voters to show their anger at its reforms and inability to deal with 10%-plus unemployment, which has dogged France for more than 20 years.
Analysts said that in appointing a loyalist, friend and former adviser, Mr Chirac had opted for security; the consequences of putting the ambitious and combative Mr Sarkozy - who has demanded free-market reforms to pull the economy out of its morass - into the prime minister's post were too unpredictable.
But most predicted that choosing Mr Villepin could backfire badly: he is too close to the wounded president to initiate serious reform and he has never held elected office.
In the wake of a vote exposing the extent of the electorate's mistrust of their political class, picking a patrician part-time poet and high-flyer diplomat will be perceived as little better than an insult, commentators warned.
"It's a catastrophe, a real catastrophe," said Philippe Moreau Defarges of the French Institute for International Relations. "People will go on to the streets to show their anger. This is a man who has never been elected, who doesn't represent the people at all. It will turn out badly."
A banking analyst, fearful of a market backlash, described Mr Chirac's decision as "rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic".
The leftwing opposition was vitriolic about the choice, including many Socialists who, like the government, backed a yes vote. "This is a denial of democracy in the light of Sunday's vote," the Socialist members of the upper house of the National Assembly declared in a joint statement.
The Communist party leader Marie-Georges Buffet, a leading no campaigner, said the appointment was "a provocation to the sovereign voice of the people", while the rebel Socialist MP Arnaud Montebourg, another referendum no campaigner, said that it was an "historic" error.
"The citizens of France asked to be listened to," he said. "The president's response is to appoint a man who has never crossed a voter in his life.
"From embassies to ministries, Mr Villepin does not know his country - he knows only honours. This increases yet further the illegitimacy of this government to govern."
The return of Mr Sarkozy is also seen as having possibly dramatic consequences.
Denied the right by Mr Chirac last year to combine the post of finance minister with the leadership of the UMP, Mr Sarkozy opted for the party and has turned it into his fiefdom. Hugely popular on the right but loathed by the Chirac inner circle, he enjoys grassroots backing for a tilt at the presidency in 2007.
Mr Chirac will be hoping Mr Villepin can use the prime minister's post as a springboard, undercutting Mr Sarkozy. "His bet is being able to transform Villepin into a credible presidential candidate," said another political analyst, Nicolas Fauger.
At the high-profile interior ministry, however, Mr Sarkozy is certain to devote his considerable energy to outmanoeuvring the politically inexperienced premier. Together with the UMP party machine, that could make him unstoppable.
