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New French PM unveils gender-balanced Cabinet

New French Prime Minister Francois Fillon yesterday unveiled a 15-minister Cabinet team that includes seven women and maverick Socialist Bernard Kouchner as foreign minister.

The line-up was unveiled a day after right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy, who took power this week promising radical reform to lift France out of its social and economic malaise, named Fillon as prime minister.

Many of the ministers served under Sarkozy's predecessor Jacques Chirac. But there are many startling appointments, including the heavy female presence and the first minister of North African origin, that highlight Sarkozy's declared aim of making a clean break with France's political past.

The appointment of Kouchner, a 67-year-old doctor-turned-politician who backed Sarkozy's Socialist rival Segolene Royal in the election campaign, has created bitter recrimination in left-wing ranks.

Kouchner, founder of Doctors Without Borders, is a former UN high representative in Kosovo and one of the country's most popular politicians. He has served in successive Socialist governments from 1988.

Fillon's team includes former prime minister Alain Juppe as number two in the government at the helm of a new super-ministry for environment, sustainable development and energy.

Juppe had to leave politics for several years after becoming the highest profile figure to be punished in a party finance scandal.

Former defense minister Michele Alliot-Marie got the interior ministry and former employment minister Jean-Louis Borloo became minister for the economy, finance and employment, spearheading the drive for economic reform.

Another high-profile appointment is Sarkozy's election campaign spokeswoman Rachida Dati at the justice ministry. Not only is she one of the pioneer women in the government, she also becomes the first politician of North African origin to hold a top French government post.

Herve Morin, who was parliamentary leader of the centrist UDF party, was named defense minister.

With the appointnment of seven women ministers, France has now joined Chile, Finland, Spain and Sweden in seeking to end male domination of politics by embracing gender parity in government.

Fillon will lead Sarkozy's UMP party into parliamentary elections next month hoping for the majority needed to push through Sarkozy's promised reforms.

Most opinion polls say the UMP will easily win that majority.

Fillon made his mark as a reformer as social affairs minister under Chirac, from 2002 to 2004, when he overhauled France's pension system, facing down million-strong street protests.

His friendship with Sarkozy dates back to the 1990s but he threw all of his energy into building up the Sarkozy electoral machine after losing his government post in a reshuffle in 2005.

Fillon, who has a British wife, was appointed and started work one day after the 52-year-old Sarkozy took over as head of state.

The 53-year-old is seen as a safe pair of hands whose experience handling unions during pensions reform will be a key asset to the new government.

His low-key demeanor is often described as complementary to Sarkozy's hyper-active side. But like Sarkozy, Fillon embraces a can-do attitude to politics, rejecting the view that France is unreformable.
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