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The former head of a US law firm became the first woman Finance Minister in France yesterday in a Cabinet reshuffle forced on President Sarkozy in part by his Government’s poor results in weekend elections.

Christine Lagarde, 51, who spent 20 years in the United States and was head of Baker & McKenzie, the Chicago-based international firm, succeeded Jean-Louis Borloo to become the second-ranking Cabinet member under François Fillon, the Prime Minister.

In keeping with his policy of opening the Government beyond his centre-right party, Mr Sarkozy also included women, non-whites, opposition members and even the national rugby coach among 12 new junior ministerial jobs.

Despite his election promises to promote equal numbers of women and men to his Government, Mr Sarkozy has kept the ratio at one third women in his new expanded team. There are 11 women in the 33-member administration, including 7 of 16 Cabinet ministers. Four of the new junior ministers are women. Three women occupy five of the most senior positions. They are Ms Lagarde, Michèle Alliot-Marie, the Interior Minister, and Rachida Dati, the Justice Minister.

The appointment of Ms Lagarde was part of a shake-up in response to the defeat in last Sunday’s parliamentary elections of Alain Juppé, the Deputy Prime Minister. The loss of his Bordeaux seat forced Mr Juppé, a former prime minister, to resign from his Environment, Energy and Transport superministry. The arrival of Mr Borloo, a maverick centrist politician, in the No 2 post of Deputy Prime Minister is formally a promotion but, in reality, it is a sign of Mr Sarkozy’s displeasure with his performance at Bercy, the nickname for the all-powerful Ministry of the Economy and Finance. Mr Borloo was blamed by colleagues for causing the loss of parliamentary seats by saying one week before the election run-off that the Government may raise VAT by several points. Anger over the possible rise, designed to balance cuts in payroll charges, contributed to a swing to the Socialist Opposition and the Government’s majority was cut by 40 seats.

Ms Lagarde, who was serving as agriculture minister, had distinguished herself since 2005 as an international negotiator as trade minister in the administration of Jacques Chirac, the last president. As a lawyer with long international experience, she is ideally qualified to implement Mr Sarkozy’s promises to adapt France to the globalised world. Her job, however, is one of the least secure in the Cabinet. She is the tenth finance minister since 1997 — a period in which the British post has been held by Gordon Brown.

Despite the electoral setback Mr Sarkozy ordered Mr Fillon and the new Cabinet to spare no time in pushing through the deep economic and social reforms that he promised in the spring presidential campaign.

Mr Fillon insisted that the election had delivered a “majority for action”. He added: “What we have said we will now do.” Michel Barnier, a former foreign minister, replaced Ms Lagarde at Agriculture. Among the new junior ministers is Fadela Amara, 43, a militant Muslim feminist, who is in charge of Urban Affairs, and Rama Yade, 30, a Senegalese-born woman who joined the Foreign Ministry.

Ms Amara, who is identified with the Left, is famous as the co-founder of an immigrant women’s rights’ organisation Ni Putes Ni Soumises (Neither Whores Nor Doormats). The women’s appointment came after the most symbolically powerful nomination in the senior Cabinet last month: the recruitment of Ms Dati, 41, the daughter of Moroccan-Algerian workers.

The other unusual appointment was that of Bernard Laporte, the rugby coach. He became junior Sports Minister but will not take office until after the rugby World Cup, to be held in France this autumn.

Among left-wing appointments was that of Jean-Marie Bockel, a Socialist politician, as a junior to Bernard Kouchner, the leftwinger who is Mr Sarkozy’s Foreign Minister.

The top jobs

François Fillon Prime Minister

Jean-Louis Borloo Deputy Prime Minister

Michèle Alliot-Marie Interior Minister

Bernard Kouchner Foreign

Christine Lagarde Finance

Brice Hortefeux Immigration

Rachida Dati Justice

Michel Barnier Agriculture

Xavier Bertrand Labour

Xavier Darcos Education

Valérie Pécresse Higher Education and Science

Hervé Morin Defence

Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin Health

Christine Boutin Housing

Christine Albanel Culture

Eric Woerth Budget

Source: Le Figaro

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