Sarkozy to reshuffle cabinet after poll defeat

FRENCH President Nicolas Sarkozy prepared yesterday to shake up his government after a humiliating defeat by the left in regional elections pressured him to recast his reform programme.

Sarkozy met with his Prime Minister Francois Fillon to plan the cabinet reshuffle, while tensions surfaced in his party, with former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin calling for a confidence vote on the president’s reforms.

The second-round regional poll on Sunday left Sarkozy’s right-wing UMP in charge of only one of France’s mainland regions in the last ballot-box test of Sarkozy’s popularity before the 2012 presidential vote.

The president’s chief of staff Claude Gueant said Fillon and Sarkozy were planning a “technical reshuffle” of the cabinet – signalling a new start in Sarkozy’s campaign to persuade France to swallow difficult reforms.

Sarkozy “expected these results to be disappointing. He said before the regionals that an election always has a meaning and a message. He has decided to hear it,” Gueant said.

The results were “a big wake-up call for quick and effective action” to tackle unemployment and other effects of the economic crisis, he added.

Sarkozy was elected in 2007 on promises to boost France’s economy and get people back to work, but the recession has driven unemployment up to 10%, its highest level in a decade.

The next big hurdle on his agenda is a plan to raise the retirement age and reform the generous pensions of some public sector workers – measures that looked set for tough resistance even before Sunday’s defeat.

Fillon admitted that the election result showed “we have not been convincing,” after the Socialist-led opposition beat the UMP by about 54% to 36%.

“This is a disappointment for the governing party. I take my share of responsibility,” he said.

The results leave the UMP in control of only one of France’s 22 mainland regions, the right-wing stronghold of Alsace.

The far-right National Front won more than 9% of the vote overall, confirming a comeback for the anti-immigrant party.

“The French have expressed their rejection of the politics of the president and the government,” Socialist party leader Martine Aubry said, calling on the left to unite behind a programme to retake power at a national level.

A former member of ex-president Jacques Chirac’s government, Francois Baroin, also held talks with Sarkozy at the Elysee presidential palace yesterday.

UMP sources said Baroin was expected to replace Budget Minister Eric Woerth, a nod to the centre-right members of the party. The sources said Woerth would take over as labour minister from Xavier Darcos.