De Villepin has now presented his new government with Chirac. This new French 2005 government is lean and mean, has much less ministers than under Raffarin, less women also, and a few more Chirac loyals than before - as well as the praetorian guard of Chirac-critic Sarkozy including Sarkozy himself in the number two spot of enlarged Interior and State Minister. Chirac and De Villepin are hereby announcing that they intend to change things in France their way in the last 22 months they have until the general elections in Spring 2007.
Here is a link with graphics and names.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/vi/0,47-0@2-3224,54-657712@51-639952,0.html
I am not sure that this is really what the French had wanted. It seems to me the French had also wished to see a Social element in the Fabius style, since the vast majority of the EU-NO voters are from the working and "lower" French classes. But this might well change in 2007, unless de Villepin can deliver now what amounts to an economic miracle in France.
