Sarkozy eyes re-election with reshuffled cabinet

President Nicolas Sarkozy has reshuffled his cabinet less than a year before the end of his mandate in May next year, spurring many in France to view the new team as the “war cabinet” that Sarkozy hopes would guarantee his re-election.

On Wednesday, François Baroin, France’s budget minister and government spokesman was named to the key post of finance minister, replacing the IMF-bound Christine Lagarde. But the imperative appointment was accompanied with a handful of other strategic promotions.

“Expectedly, the presence of centrists was reinforced, in order to send a message to the friends of [former minister] Jean-Louis Borloo,” wrote the conservative daily Le Figaro, explaining that with this reshuffle - the 11th in four years - Sarkozy hopes to mend the fractions within his centre-right UMP party.

Former environment minister Jean-Louis Borloo quit the UMP party earlier this year, saying Sarkozy was taking the party too far to the right.

Until recently a prominent UMP member, Borloo now hopes to rally centrists around an independent presidential ticket, and has already convinced former junior ministers Rama Yade and Yves Jego to ditch the UMP.

Upon Wednesday's reshuffle, three prominent centrists were named to government posts.

They included the highest ranking member of parliament from the New Center party, Francois Sauvadet, who was named the new civil service minister, and MP Jean Leonetti, who was made European affairs minister.

According to the daily Le Parisien, Leonetti was “rewarded” with the post because he disavowed Borloo when he quit the UMP in April. The leading daily Le Monde made it even clearer: “Europe is not what’s at stake. It was important to welcome in centrists.”

Fishing for “Chirac babies”

Besides Baroin, the big winner from the latest ministerial shakeup was the junior minister in charge of higher education Valérie Pécresse, who replaced Baroin as both budget minister and government spokesperson.

Baroin, 46, and Pécresse, 44, share relative youth and ambition as lawmakers, but are also recognised as part of a tightly knit group of protégés of former president Jacques Chirac, dubbed the “Chirac babies” by the French press.

Baroin’s appointment as finance minister came at the expense of agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire, who analysts considered a more competent candidate.

The left-leaning daily Liberation wrote that Sarkozy “chose to make a steadfast ally of the Chirac loyalist Baroin,” by refusing Le Maire the coveted job.

Sarkozy's apparent move to charm the UMP's "Chiraquiens" comes at a time of tension between the two men. In June, Chirac broke years of silence to very publicly mock Sarkozy in his memoirs.

A week after the book was published, the very-popular Chirac told reporters he would vote for Socialist Party presidential hopeful Francois Hollande in 2012. While he later said the comment was a joke, the “endorsement” was received by the French press as a personal attack on Sarkozy.

Sarkozy may never reconcile with his predecessor, but he has shown himself generous to Chirac’s followers. He seems to have adopted a similar tactic for centrists who might be attracted by Borloo's candidacy.

President Sarkozy has struggled for four years to establish a stable cabinet. Former Labour Minister Eric Woerth and former Foreign Affairs Minister Michele Alliot-Marie were ushered out after separate and humiliating scandals, and are only the most outstanding in a long list of ministerial basket cases.

The French press is not convinced Sarkozy has finally found the right formula, only the right focus. “One year away from the presidential poll," Le Monde wrote, “only national politics counts.”