Paris - President Nicolas Sarkozy could reshuffle his cabinet as early as next week, government sources said on Tuesday, as he seeks to move on from an unpopular pension reform and look ahead to a 2012 election.
Sources say he will retain Francois Fillon, a capable ally who appeals to his core conservative electorate, as prime minister, and could bring in Alain Juppe, a former prime minister and heavyweight of the ruling centre-right UMP party.
Sarkozy is still fine-tuning his choices for ministries like finance and foreign affairs, the sources said, but will serve up a trimmer cabinet with a better gender balance and redraw some ministry lines as he aims to put a messy showdown with unions over pension reform behind him.
Sarkozy said back in July he would switch ministers around following a reform of the pension system aimed at stemming a gaping funding deficit. He could announce the changes as soon as Monday, after he returns from the G20 summit in Seoul.
“At a breakfast with the ruling party this morning, there was talk of a reshuffle that would be finalised this weekend and announced at the beginning of the week,” a source close to the centre-right government told Reuters.
Separately, an official at the ruling UMP party said on condition of anonymity that the fact France's Constitutional Council removed the last hurdle to the pension reform on Tuesday made it likely the reshuffle would happen early next week.
Stuck with dismal approval ratings and loathed by millions of French for putting off their retirement by two years, Sarkozy needs to put a fresh face on his government if he is to rescue his dismal popularity ratings before an April 2012 presidential election that will pit him against a resurgent left.
This will be Sarkozy's second reshuffle after he switched his labour and budget ministers after the UMP was thrashed by a resurgent left in regional elections in early 2010. - Reuters