Jean-Pierre Raffarin Nominated French Premier

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, May 07, 2002

Jean-Pierre Raffarin Nominated French Premier

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Newly re-elected French President Jacques Chirac nominated fellow conservative senator Jean-Pierre Raffarin as the prime minister, presidential spokesman Dominique de Villepin announced May 6 morning in Paris.

"(Socialist outgoing prime minister) Lionel Jospin has presented his resignation to the President of the Republic, who has accepted it," said de Villepin.

"The president has nominated Mr. Jean-Pierre Raffarin as prime minister and charged him to form the new government," he said.

Earlier in the morning, Jospin went to Elysee Palace to present his resignation to Chirac, who won re-election with 82 percent of the ballots cast in Sunday's run-off.

When Jospin left, Raffarin had a brief talk with Chirac and later the presidential spokesman announced the nomination.

Raffarin, 53, former minister of small businesses under the government of Alain Juppe from 1995 to 1997, is currently president of the free-market Liberal Democracy (DL) in the region of Poitou-Charentes in western France.

On Sunday evening, Chirac announced a "government of mission" would be set up very quickly. The French daily Le Figaro said new ministers would be nominated on Monday afternoon.

At a campaign rally earlier in May, Chirac said he advocated what Raffarin calls "new governance," commenting that the senator was "one of those called to play an important role in coming years. "

Under the French Constitution, the prime minister must be approved by a majority of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. However, for the time being, Raffarin does not have to go through the procedure as the National Assembly has adjourned since February for the sake of the legislative elections.

The interim government of Raffarin, which is surely to be " tightened" and comprised of only a dozen ministers, will lead the right in June's legislative elections, said Le Figaro in its Monday edition.

If the right wins the legislative polls on June 9 and 16, a larger Raffarin-led government of 30 to 40 ministers and secretaries of state will be formally sworn in, the paper added.

If the left wins, France will be brought to another five-year period of left-right power sharing.

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