Hollande reshuffles cabinet, names former PM Ayrault foreign minister

In a surprise move, he was chosen over environment minister Segolene Royal, the mother of Hollande’s four children, who was touted as a candidate for the high-profile post.

The socialist president is suffering some of the lowest approval ratings of any prime minister in French history.

If the measures had fallen at the first stage, it could have dealt a fatal blow to Hollande’s ambitions of re-election in 2017.

Toward that end, the 61-year-old Hollande named a member of the French Greens Party, Emmanuelle Cosse, as housing minister, while Jean-Michel Baylet, the head of the small Left Radical Party becomes minister for local authorities.

“There is no change of course, but Hollande is trying to broaden his appeal by bringing on allies, expanding his base beyond the Socialist party to boost his chances to qualify for the presidential election run-offs”, Ifop pollster’s Jerome Fourquet said.

After two years as Prime Minister at the start of Mr Hollande’s mandate, Mr Ayrault was dropped in favour of the younger and more thrusting Manuel Valls.

Other leading ministerial positions including defense and finance are unchanged.

In the government reshuffle, Hollande named his former Prime Minister Ayrault as a replacement for Laurent Fabius who was nominated to be the president of the Constitutional Council.

Regional elections in December 2015 did not go much better, with the centre-right Republicans of former president Nicolas Sarkozy coming out in front. The French president’s popularity rose after he took a tough approach on security following the 13 November terror attacks on Paris which killed 130 people. The Liberation newspaper published results of an opinion poll this week that shows a staggering 75 percent of voters do not want Hollande re-elected.

Efforts to kickstart a flagging economy with a raft of reforms a year ago led to a similar criticism of a shift in ideology, with a rebellious fringe of the Socialists accusing the Valls government of being too pro-business.

He succeeds Laurent Fabius, 69, who announced on Wednesday he was stepping down as part of a cabinet reshuffle.