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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, May 08, 2002

France Names New Foreign Minister

Diplomat and behind-the-scenes presidential adviser, Dominique de Villepin returns to the place where he began his political career 22 years ago: the gilded halls of the French Foreign Ministry.


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Diplomat and behind-the-scenes presidential adviser, Dominique de Villepin returns to the place where he began his political career 22 years ago: the gilded halls of the French Foreign Ministry.

After serving as one of conservative President Jacques Chirac's most trusted aides for the past seven years, de Villepin was appointed as France's new foreign minister Tuesday.

He has been chief of staff at the presidential Elysee Palace since Chirac was first elected president in 1995.

While a top Chirac confidant, de Villepin was behind what has been widely seen has Chirac's biggest miscalculation as president: the 1997 dissolution of parliament. It brought a Socialist-led government to power and began five years of unwieldy "cohabitation" a situation that arises when the president and prime minister hail from different parties.

Numerous people in Chirac's entourage urged the president to fire him, but Chirac consistently refused to oust de Villepin.

"It is rare to meet a man like him," Chirac was quoted as saying by Le Monde newspaper, saying he admired de Villepin for his leadership qualities as well as his poetry.

It was de Villepin who appeared on national television Monday to announce Chirac's selection of centrist lawmaker and former businessman Jean-Pierre Raffarin as France's new prime minister.

On Tuesday, Raffarin named de Villepin and other ministers to an interim Cabinet that is expected to hold office at least until France's parliamentary elections next month.

The son of a former French senator and a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration France's elite school for civil servants de Villepin began his political career in 1980 when he was put in charge of southern Africa at the Foreign Ministry. He later served as a foreign policy adviser on the Middle East and spokesman for the French Embassy in Washington.

He also is a prolific author and published poet.




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