Sauve qui peut

1 June 2005

How does France s president respond to a vote of no confidence in distant political elites? He makes an unelected enarque prime minister. Dominique de Villepin s ministry will have little legitimacy. It is unlikely to get France moving.

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Dominique de Villepin became France's new prime minister on May 31, following the country's rejection of the EU constitution in the referendum held on May 29.

A loyal ally of president Jacques Chirac, de Villepin replaces JeanPierre Raffarin, who resigned after the vote.

In a television broadcast, Chirac said the new government's priority was to get the country moving again. But in doing so, it would be faithful to the French economic model not an AngloSaxon one.

Nicolas Sarkozy, Chirac's rival to represent the French right in the 2007 presidential elections, becomes the number two in de Villepin's ministry. He was reported to have said he was joining the government in a spirit of national unity.

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