Prime Minister François Fillon unveiled a slimmed-down government on 18 May, one day after being appointed by the new French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The announcement, made from the President’s headquarters, highlights the very personal involvement Sarkozy wishes to take in shaping policies with the government resembling a cabinet.
Alain Juppé, a former Prime Minister and foreign policy chief under Jacques Chirac’s first Presidential term, is number two in the hierarchy with a special ministry of environment and sustainable development that includes energy, transport and climate change among its policy briefs.
Juppé’s nomination at this new ‘super-ministry’ reflects a promise made by Sarkozy to green activist Nicolas Hulot in the presidential campaign to propel environmental issues to the top of the country’s political agenda.
Juppé’s first task will be to shape a broad accord with trade unions, environmental NGOs and employers’ organisations on environmental policy at a meeting scheduled to take place “in September or October”.
Consultations will start on Monday (21 May) with environmental organisations on the issues to be addressed at the meeting, which is being compared to the ‘accords de Grenelle’ of 1968 that put an end to the student uprising by forging a broad-based consensus on social policy.
In his first media appearance, Alain Juppé said that “the priority of priorities” will be “to ensure that transport emit less greenhouse gases if we want to win the fight against global warming.” He also said nuclear will remain an important component of the French energy policy for the next 30-40 years.
Next in the Fillon government is Jean-Louis Borloo, previously in charge of employment policy, with a ministry merging the economy, finance and employment. "My only mission is to cut unemployment to 5% by the end of Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year mandate, as he has pledged," Borloo told French daily Le Monde.
The new government also seeks to make good on Sarkozy’s pledge to reach out to the left with socialist Bernard Kouchner appointed foreign affairs minister with responsibility for European affairs. He will be assisted by a secretary of state for European affairs, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, who used to be chief of cabinet to Commission President Jacques Delors in 1994-95.
