Former French PM Ayrault Named New FM

Local Editor

French President Francois Hollande reshuffled his cabinet Thursday, naming Jean-Marc Ayrault foreign minister and adding several ecologists to government as he seeks to widen his political base ahead of a presidential poll in 2017.

Ayrault, a 66-year-old former prime minister, will become France's top diplomat after veteran politician Laurent Fabius bowed out of politics to take up a post at the Constitutional Council.

A fluent German speaker, Ayrault's understanding of the language and culture will be seen as an advantage in dealing with Berlin and the most pressing issues facing the European Union, such as the migration crisis.

In a minor shake-up of his Socialist government, Hollande also named a member of the French Greens Party [EELV], Emmanuelle Cosse, as housing minister and included two other ecologist politicians as under-secretaries in the new government.

Hollande "must increase his political base at all costs", a source close to the president said ahead of the reshuffle announcement, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We can't face a presidential election without a Socialist family rallied behind their candidate and without the ecologists," said a source close to the president.

France's Greens Party refused to take part in government in 2014 after Manuel Valls - considered to be on the right of the Socialist Party - was named prime minister, and has been divided ever since over whether they should return to the fold.

Ayrault was ditched as prime minister in that reshuffle after two years in the job in favor of Valls, his new boss.

Regional elections at the end of 2015 did not go much better, with the center-right Republicans of former president Nicolas Sarkozy coming out in front.

In another blow to Hollande's hopes to unite the left ahead of the 2017 election, the leader of the radical Left Party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, who won 11 percent of votes in 2012, announced Wednesday he would run for president.

"I don't think this is convenient for the left or the ecologists," said government spokesman Stephane Le Foll.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team