de Villapin is the new French PM.

international | politics / elections | other press Tuesday May 31, 2005 16:59 by iosaf

French lessons for you all. If you don't accept this module, then don't start commenting on France

Very clever man is Mr. Chirac, very clever.
I reckon it's on account of him not watching telly,
and avoiding the richer heavier sauces at the antonine carâme suppers.

Raffarin the unpopular and over-fed is out
de Villepin the tall and lean is now PM.

it's been a while since we linked you to Quay d'Orsay, or indeed the Elysee. But sure that's where it's happening like.
jee jee jee (that's spanish and french for heeheehee)

in order of their appearance this 31st of May 2005-


the statement of the president of the V republic of France, his excellency monsieur Chirac on the appointment of M. Dominique de Villepin as prime minster.

http://elysee.fr/elysee/francais/salle_de_presse/communiques_de_la_presidence/2005/mai/communique_de_la_presidence_de_la_republique_concernant_la_nomination_de_m_dominique_de_villepin_au_poste_de_premier_ministre.29998.html

the statement of the president of the V republic of France, his excellency Monsieur Chirac on the dismissal of M. Jean-Pierre Raffarin.

http://elysee.fr/elysee/francais/salle_de_presse/communiques_de_la_presidence/2005/mai/communique_de_la_presidence_de_la_republique_concernant_la_demission_de_m_jean-pierre_raffarin_premier_ministre.29997.html

This all follows certain referendum, which i told you ages ago, was going to get a Non! vote.
This is the statement of Chirac on that :-
http://elysee.fr/elysee/francais/interventions/discours_et_declarations/2005/mai/declaration_du_president_de_la_republique_suite_au_referendum_francais_sur_le_traite_constitutionnel_europeen.29995.html

the new PM M. de Villapin will now form a government, while everyone is talking about the return of radicalism to the left, and zest to the extreme right.

The appointment will be seen throughout Europe, as an interesting one, (if not totally unexpected), and points to a future co-operative pact between the German CDU, who in response to Chancillor Schroeder's loss in state elections last week, elected Angela Merkel as their candidate for the
the forthcoming German elections in September.
Rather than wounded as less experienced political commentators might like to think, Chirac looks forward to completing his term and consolidating his career. And the oddest thing is, that his most unwilling and hapless helpers in all this have been the extreme right who are today claiming victory in the EU referendum.

So the last links are the official interviews given by the outgoing cabinet ministry for exterior affairs and foreign relations stuff on that referendum-

http://diplomatie.fr/actu/bulletin.asp?liste=20050531.html#Chapitre2
http://diplomatie.fr/actu/article.asp?ART=49547
http://diplomatie.fr/actu/article.asp?ART=49548

OH YES, It has occured to us today at our giggling, that one thing went sort of wrong.
Valerie Giscard d'Estaing, the "brother not bruddah" who wrote the constitution, had asked for a massive salary. Which he was refused. It would have been more fun, to have paid him, and be asking him for a refund today along with "where are the diamonds" as diamonds are sort of in the news, as the DeBeers company (a private company which withdrew from stockmarket listing as part of very extended global smelliness on the very very influential commodity trade has announced its return to Angolan mining and gem processing).

local press reaction:-
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-631760,36-656329@51-639952,0.html
http://libe.com/page.php?Article=300403

I'll give you a biog of Villepin in the comments (if a decent one is not forthcoming in an english paper)
He's by far, the most interesting man in Chirac's team, and more than match for F. Hollande of the socialists, and of course the man who got to say "NON!" to the war on Iraq.