French Interior Minister Cazeneuve Replaces Valls as PM
Local Editor
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve had been named as prime minister, replacing Manuel Valls, who resigned in order to make a bid for the presidency next year.
Valls presented his resignation to President Francois Hollande on Tuesday.
Cazeneuve will be in charge of the Socialist government until June's parliamentary elections.
He had played a key role in managing France's security since the Takfiri terror attacks in Paris last year.
Valls will face other contenders in the Socialist primary next month.
Last week, in a move that surprised many, President Hollande announced that he would not seek a second term.
He is the first president since France's Fifth Republic was created in 1958 not to seek a second mandate. But he had hemorrhaged support amid stubbornly high unemployment and anxiety about Takfiri terror.
If successful, Valls will face Francois Fillon and Marine Le Pen in the first round of the presidential election in April.
Current polling suggests that Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front [FN], could come in the top two in the first round, but would be likely to lose to the center-right Fillon in the second.
Valls is not guaranteed to win the Socialist primary, which will involve at least seven other candidates.
He is seen as a divisive figure on the left, after forcing labor reforms through parliament and endorsing controversial bans last summer on the "burkini" swimsuit.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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