President Sarkozy is to reshuffle his month-old Cabinet within days after his magical touch appeared to fade in elections that gave him an unexpectedly slim parliamentary majority to govern France.

The chief casualty from Sunday’s final-round voting was Alain Juppé, the Deputy Prime Minister, who was forced to resign his job as superminister for the Environment, Transport and Energy after losing his Bordeaux seat. Mr Sarkozy reappointed François Fillon formally as Prime Minister yesterday, as they took stock of the pale victory of their centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) in the final voting round for the National Assembly.

In a sign of worry over Mr Sarkozy’s plans for a tax upheaval, voters cut the UMP majority by 45 seats, sending 314 party MPs to the 577-seat Parliament. The Socialist Party rejoiced yesterday over the unexpected gain of 36 seats to 185 seats. The Opposition will have a total of 226 seats in the Assembly, while the UMP and its allies will hold 346.

Before heading to his first European Union summit on Thursday, Mr Sarkozy is to appoint women and figures from outside the UMP camp to a dozen new junior ministerial posts. There was no obvious replacement for Mr Juppé, a former prime minister who is closely tied to Jacques Chirac, the former President. Mr Sarkozy was thought likely to revamp his original superministry, splitting its responsibilities between two chiefs.

This will complete the Government that he appointed after his election on May 6 to drive through the revolution that he has pledged for the French way of life.

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