AFTER a two-hour meeting at the Élysée Palace between new Prime Minister Manuel Valls and President Francois Hollande France's new-look “fighting government” has been revealed.
The team was unveiled after the President had already left the Elysee Palace to head to Brussels for an EU-Africa summit.
Mr Valls’ 16-strong ministerial team, which features eight men and eight women and is the smallest since 1958, is:
Laurent Fabius: Minister of Foreign Affairs and international development
Ségolène Royal: Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy
Benoît Hamon: Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research
Christiane Taubira: Minister of Justice
Michel Sapin: Minister of Finance and the Public Accounts
Arnaud Montebourg: Minister of Economy, Productive Recovery and Digital
Marisol Touraine: Minister of Social Affairs
François Rebsamen: Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Dialogue
Jean-Yves Le Drian: Defence Minister
Bernard Cazeneuve: Interior Minister
Najat Vallaud-Belkacem: Minister of Women's Rights, the City, Youth and Sports
Sylvia Pinel: Minister for Housing and Equality
Marylise Lebranchu: Minister of Decentralisation, State Reform and Public Service
Aurélie Filippetti: Minister of Culture and Communication
Stéphane Le Foll: Minister of Agriculture, Food, Forestry and spokesman of the government
George Pau-Langevin: Minister of Overseas Territories
Mme Royal, the President's former partner, and Mr Rebsamen are the only two new faces in Mr Valls’ revamped ministerial team.
Six cabinet members - Benoît Hamon, Michel Sapin, Arnaud Montebourg, Bernard Cazeneuve, Sylvia Pinel and George Pau-Langevin have new portfolios.
Laurent Fabius, Najat Belkacem-Vallaud, Marylise Lebranchu, Stéphane Le Foll and Aurélie Filippetti all have expanded roles - while Christiane Taubira, Marisol Touraine and Jean-Yves Le Drian remain in the posts they held under former Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault.
The identities of the secretaries of state will be unveiled next week.