Beaten Chirac names Villepin prime minister

PRESIDENT Jacques Chirac, shaken by the defeat of the European Union constitution, appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who jetted around the globe galvanising international opposition to the Iraq war, as prime minister to lead a new government yesterday.

Villepin, 51, moves from the Interior Ministry to replace Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, dumped after voters Sunday roundly rejected Mr Chirac's call to ratify a European Union constitution, humiliating the 72-year-old president a leading proponent of the charter.

Mr Chirac asked Mr Villepin to form a new government the makeup of which was not expected to be announced until at least today.

In Mr Villepin, Mr Chirac opted for a trusted pair of hands, rather than a radical change in direction for France. The senator's son, a former foreign minister and writer who speaks excellent English, has long been close to Mr Chirac.

He was Mr Chirac's voice at the UN Security Council in the crisis over Iraq in 2003, arguing that war should be a last resort.

There was speculation the ambitious and popular Nicolas Sarkozy, a two-time minister who heads Mr Chirac's governing centre-right party, will be brought back into the new government.

Such a decision would be remarkable because of the sometimes open rivalry between Mr Chirac and Mr Sarkozy, who makes no secret of his presidential ambitions.

Before Sunday's referendum, Mr Sarkozy delivered what was interpreted as a veiled warning against making Mr Villepin prime minister, saying only people who have held elected office which Mr Villepin never has "have the right to speak in the name of France."

Lawmaker Yves Jego, who is close to Mr Sarkozy, told France-Info radio he was being brought back as interior minister, a post he held in 2002-2004.

He claimed Mr Sarkozy also would be allowed to remain as head of the centre-right UMP party, even though Mr Chirac previously has said that job is incompatible with holding a government post. Keeping control of the UMP would give Mr Sarkozy the electoral machine he will need if he runs for the presidency in 2007.

The silver-haired Mr Villepin arrived at the presidential Elysee Palace just minutes after Mr Chirac bid farewell to Mr Raffarin with a handshake on the palace steps. Mr Chirac then spent more than an hour with his new prime minister.

Mr Villepin takes over at a difficult time. Unemployment is running at 10% and the French political establishment is reeling from the referendum vote that was as much a repudiation of Mr Chirac's economic and social policies as it was a refusal of the EU treaty.

The outcome was not even close the referendum on approving the proposed EU constitution was defeated by 55% to 45%.

Mr Villepin's aristocratic air and the fact that he has never been tested in an election also could be drawbacks as the government tries to reconnect with the people.

Opposition Socialists dismissed Mr Chirac's choice as a mere shuffling of personalities, not a radical change in direction. Senior Socialist lawmaker Jean-Marc Ayrault called Mr Villepin's appointment the "ultimate attempt to save an administration in agony."

Philippe Moreau Defarges, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations, called the appointment "a real catastrophe".