- Hollande reshuffles government after disastrous election results
- Sacks PM Jean-Marc Ayrault; replaces him with right-winger Manuel Valls
- Ségolène Royal, Hollande's ex-girlfriend and new minister, lost the 2007 presidential election to Nicolas Sarkozy
- Royal, 60, is the mother of the French president's four children
- French unemployment more than 11 per cent and top rate of tax 75 per cent
The unelected ex-girlfriend of French president François Hollande was today made a senior minister in his government.
Ségolène Royal’s appointment as Ecology and Energy Minster as part of a panicked reshuffle caused widespread astonishment and anger.
Not only has the 60-year-old been widely rejected by the French people at recent elections, but she is a leading lady in the Hollande soap opera surrounding his personal life.
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A poll in a Parisian newspaper just before today’s announcement showed more than 70 per cent of French people were against Mlle Royal returning to power.
M Hollande was barely allowed to speak to Mlle Royal, the mother of his four children, while he was living with his previous girlfriend, Valerie Trierweiler.
The two women detested each other, but M Hollande effectively sacked Mlle Trierweiler in January after his secret affair with an actress was exposed.
This paved the way for Mlle Royal’s appointment today, as part of a desperate attempt to change the fortunes of a failing administration.
In government: Ségolène Royal’s appointment as Ecology and Energy Minster as part of a panicked reshuffle caused widespread astonishment and anger
France’s entire Socialist government resigned following meltdown in local elections on Sunday, when the far-right National Front made dramatic gains across the country.
M Hollande’s immediate reaction was to sack his prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, 64, who had announced a ‘defeat for the government’.
M Ayrault was replaced by Manuel Valls, the tough-talking former interior minister who is fiercely anti-immigration.
M Valls, who was born in Barcelona, Spain, in 1962 and is on the right of his party, caused outrage in his own party last year when he said Roma gypsies ‘did not want to integrate’ and should be deported.
Beyond the appointment of Mlle Royal, today’s reshuffle contained few surprises, with ministers such as Foreign Secretary Laurent Fabius keeping their previous jobs.
Socialist mismanagement was blamed for more than 150 town halls swinging to opposition parties in the weekend’s local elections.
Les femmes d'Hollande: Valérie Trierweiler (left) was the French president's live-in lover when he was elected; M Hollande's secret mistress Julie Gayet (right) is on the verge of being dumped say reports
Polls show that M Hollande is by far the most unpopular head of state in recent French history.
There have been claims this month that he is on the verge of dumping his secret mistress, Julie Gayet, while spending more time with Mlle Royal.
The unemployment rate in France is now above 11 per cent, with the cost of living also soaring.
M Hollande has become synonymous with a top rate of income tax of 75 per cent, but this week pledged that his government would become more business friendly.
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