France's Sarkozy names Fillon as PM
PARIS  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 program of reforms.
Shortly after taking over from Jacques Chirac on Wednesday, Mr. 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,” Mr. Sarkozy's office said in a statement on his first full day in office,.
Mr. Fillon, 53, masterminded Mr. 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 labour laws and the pensions system.
Mr. Sarkozy and Mr. Fillon held a breakfast meeting on Thursday just hours before the new prime minister was due to take office.
“The French have had enough of nothing ever improving in their daily lives,” Mr. Sarkozy said in his inaugural speech at the president's Élysées 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 per cent, 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 per cent.
Thursday is a public holiday in France but it is Mr. Sarkozy's first day at work.
Mr. 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 Mr. Sarkozy won 53 per cent of the vote in the May 6 presidential run-off ballot did not mean they had to accept the measures in his program.
Mr. Sarkozy's cabinet, which is expected to be unveiled on Friday, will also want to avoid a repeat of last year's botched youth labour reforms, which former prime minister Dominique de Villepin was forced to withdraw after nationwide protests.
Mr. 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.
Mr. Fillon will take over from Mr. Villepin, who has already resigned.
The new President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy has appointed François Fillon to head the new French government. Fillon's predecessor Dominique de Villepin stepped down yesterday, and formally handed over the post during a ceremony today.

The nomination did not come as a surprise after the British newspaper the '''' had reported on May 8 that Sarkozy had introduced Fillon to Tony Blair in a telephone conversation.

François Fillon (53) has been the political advisor of Sarkozy in the  for the past 2 years, and he was Sarko's campaign leader during the recent presidential elections. Fillon has experience in negotiating with the trade unions, having undertaken controversial reforms of the  and the pension system. Sarkozy in his inauguration speech on Wednesday reiterated his plans to reform the French labour and social system, and Fillon will have to oversee these reforms as the new Prime Minister. Sarkozy said he wants to make the economy more flexible and lessen social tensions.


'''' reported that Fillon is an Anglophile; his wife Penelope Clarke, with whom he has 5 children, was born in Wales. Ideologically, Fillon is being described as a moderate left-leaning member of the conservative UMP party.

Fillon had his first experience as a minister in 1993 when he became Minister for the Higher education and Research under PM . He later became Minister for the Post office, Telecommunications and Space, then Minister for the social Affairs, Work and Solidarity, and finally Minister for national Education, the Higher education and Research. At the university, he studied public law and political sciences.

Sarkozy might announce his cabinet of 15 ministers as early as Friday, half of which are going to be women, he said. Fillon will lead the UMP in the parliamentary elections next month. A poll on Wednesday predicted a 1.5% increase in votes for the UMP, up to 40%, compared to 28% status-quo for the allied socialists.

Reports say that Sarkozy has offered the foreign minister post to , co-founder of , who is seen as being on the left in French politics.