Sarkozy unveils 15-strong Cabinet

French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday unveiled a broad-based Cabinet, naming a popular leftist and a centrist to key posts in a slimline government that radically reshapes various ministries.

Maintaining an election promise, Mr Sarkozy appointed seven women to his 15-strong team and reduced the number of ministers by half by comparison with the previous government.

Alain Juppe, a former prime minister, was named as number two at the head of a newly-formed environment, sustainable development, energy and transport superministry.

Outgoing employment minister Jean-Louis Borloo heads up a new economic strategy ministry, with Eric Woerth head of a new public accounts ministry that will draw up the state budget.

Former Socialist health minister and human rights activist Bernard Kouchner was named foreign minister - an appointment that showed Mr Sarkozy's desire to reach out across the political divide, but a move that has also angered the left.

Centrist Herve Morin was appointed defence minister, replacing Michele Alliot-Marie, who switched to the interior ministry. Rachida Dati was appointed justice minister and Christine Lagarde agriculture minister.

Brice Hortefeux, Mr Sarkozy's closest political ally, will take charge of a new immigration and national identity ministry.

---

Jean-Louis Borloo

Economy chief

• Dubbed the "social conscience" of the previous conservative administration, Mr Borloo, a former lawyer, first came to attention as mayor of the northern town of Valenciennes, overseeing its revival from a post-industrial slump.

• As labour minister in the outgoing government, he won plaudits for masterminding a downturn in unemployment, which fell to a near 24-year low of 8.3 per cent in March. Doubts about the data's accuracy tarnished that achievement.

• As economy supremo his task will be to deliver on Mr Sarkozy's pledge to create jobs and restore full employment, and his reputation as politician with a social focus could help win over hostile trade unions and students.

• Mr Borloo's curly-haired mop and laid-back looks make him a sometimes curious figure in an image-obsessed age, but Mr Borloo remains a canny media operator who used off-the-record briefings last year to successfully distance himself from an unpopular youth labour reform abandoned by the conservative government.

• Will need the good relations he has forged with unions during his recent stint as employment minister to steer Sarkozy's plans for public sector monopoly strike curbs and labour code reform past France's powerful unions.

---

Bernard Kouchner

Foreign Minister

• Mr Kouchner, an outspoken former health minister and ex-UN governor of Kosovo, is one of France's most popular figures, largely due to humanitarian work which includes co-founding the Nobel Peace Prize-winning aid agency Medecins Sans Frontieres.

• His appointment is the first time a French President has named someone from another political camp to such a senior post - a coup for Mr Sarkozy and one that ties to his pledge to make human rights one of his foreign policy priorities

• A gastroenterologist by training, Mr Kouchner, 67, strongly criticised Mr Sarkozy during the campaign, saying he had "no shame fishing in the waters of the extreme right."

• He was UN governor for Kosovo from 1999 to 2001 and one of the rare French politicians who spoke out in favour of a military intervention in Iraq in 2003, saying he was against war but also against Saddam Hussein's regime

• When famine and civil war in Somalia peaked in December 1992, Mr Kouchner paraded on a Mogadishu beach before a clutch of television crews carrying a bag of rice on his shoulder.

The French press denounced the move as self-promotion in a country where the problem was not lack of food aid, but an inability to prevent armed gangs from stealing it.

---

List of ministers

Alain Juppe, 61, Minister of State For the Environment and Sustainable Development

The political career of Mr Juppe, a former Prime Minister, appeared over when he was forced to quit as head of the UMP party in 2004 after being convicted in a party funding scandal, allowing his one-time rival Mr Sarkozy to take over the party. His return as government number two at the head of a new super-ministry represents a great comeback and he'll need all his formidable intelligence to mould the unwieldy new portfolio into a coherent unit.

Described by former President Jacques Chirac as the "best among us", Mr Juppe was his first Prime Minister in 1995.

Michele Alliot-Marie, 60, Interior

The most experienced of the female politicians in the new Cabinet, Ms Alliot-Marie is universally known by her initials MAM.

She has held various ministerial positions and was appointed defence minister in 2002 where she built a reputation for being a safe pair of hands and quietly efficient.

The interior ministry has been stripped of the immigration brief - a downgrading that reduces the scope of the job.

Herve Morin, 45, Defence

Trained in law and with a diploma from the elite Sciences Po institute, Mr Morin made the jump from administrator at the National Assembly to professional politics in 1989 by winning a seat on his local council in the Eure department northwest of Paris.

First elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1998 with the UDF, he stuck by the party while many others flocked to the newly-created UMP party in 2002.

Eric Woerth, 51, Public accounts

Graduate of France's top HEC business school with a professional background as a consultant and auditor, Mr Woerth is the outgoing treasurer of Mr Sarkozy's UMP party.

He faces a stiff challenge in his newly created position, where he will be keeper of the nation's purse strings, responsible for the state budget and ensuring France's generous social security system remains afloat.

Brice Hortefeux, 49, Immigration and National Identity

A banker's son, Mr Hortefeux has been Mr Sarkozy's closest friend and ally for more than 30 years, and is the only member of his innermost circle to make it to the Cabinet.

He will have to turn into reality his friend's controversial election promise to create a new ministry devoted to controlling immigration and inculcating new arrivals with French values.

In the outgoing administration, Mr Hortefeux was secretary of state for local government and served as Mr Sarkozy's number two at the interior ministry. He is godfather to one of Mr Sarkozy's children and his absolute loyalty is guaranteed.

Rachida Dati, 41, Justice

Born to illiterate Algerian and Moroccan parents, Ms Dati is the second of 12 children. She grew up on a poor housing project, selling cosmetics door-to-door in her teens before studying law at university.

Accounting studies secured her a job at French oil giant Elf and the Matra engineering group, where she studied for her MBA.

She trained as a magistrate from 1997-1999 and was drafted by Mr Sarkozy into his interior ministry in 2002, where she worked on his crime prevention initiative and played point-person for his often fraught relations with France's volatile suburbs.

Xavier Bertrand, 42, Work, Social Relations and Solidarity

Another relative political novice, Xavier Bertrand, was first elected to Parliament in 2002 and soon made a name for himself during debates on politically sensitive social reforms.

Having helped make the argument for an unpopular pensions reform in 2003, Mr Bertrand was appointed junior minister for health insurance in 2004 during which he steered into law a tricky reform of the country's costly health insurance system.

Promoted to health minister in 2005, Mr Bertrand was a late convert to the Mr Sarkozy team.

Christine Lagarde, 51, Agriculture and Fisheries

Ms Lagarde was the first woman on the executive committee of international law firm Baker & McKenzie and then went on to head the committee. She speaks flawless English.

She was nominated trade minister in June 2005 where she was tasked with handling sensitive negotiations in world trade talks and defending France's subsidies for farmers. However, she has agreed that the EU subsidy system needs reforming. She is an employment and anti-trust specialist and former synchronised swimming champion.

Xavier Darcos, 59, Education

A classics graduate with a doctorate in Latin and another in literature and humanities, Mr Darcos began his career teaching students preparing entrance exams to the country's top universities, before becoming an education civil servant.

Adviser, then chief of staff to centre-right Education Minister Francois Bayrou from 1993-95, he advised Prime Minister Alain Juppe on education issues in the mid-1990s. Schools minister in 2002 before being sidelined to overseas cooperation and development, he was axed in a 2005 reshuffle.

Valerie Pecresse, 39, Higher Education and Research

Spokeswoman for the UMP party since 2004, Pecresse will be the youngest minister and faces one of the most sensitive tasks - reforming the highly politicised universities.

She went to the HEC business school and the prestigious ENA graduate school and is a deputy for a smart Paris suburb. She was an advisor in the Elysee from 1998 to 2002 before getting a place in the Sarkozy team.

Christine Albanel, 51, Culture, Communication, Government Spokeswoman

The President of the Chateau of Versailles is an old friend of Mr Sarkozy. They met in the beginning of the 1990s in a Chirac team. She remained faithful to Mr Chirac while relations between Mr Sarkozy and the outgoing President worsened.

Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, 60, Health, Youth and Sports

In June 2004 she was elected European deputy for a western region in France and is deputy secretary of the ruling UMP party. She was environment minister from May 2002 to March 2004. She was a spokesman for Chirac's 2002 election campaign.

Christine Boutin, 63, Housing, Cities

A UMP deputy who ran for President in 2002, scoring 1.19 per cent in the first round ballot. She considered a run for the 2007 election but then rallied to Mr Sarkozy. She became well-known for her opposition to the PACS law, that gives unmarried and gay couples certain legal rights in common with married couples. Ms Boutin said the government should not encourage homosexuality.