MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Hollande changes policy and names pro-business prime minister

The 51-year-old Valls has been compared with “New Labor” former British premier Tony Blair

French President Francois Hollande has chosen centrist Interior Minister Manuel Valls as his new prime minister, replacing Jean-Marc Ayrault who quit after the ruling Socialists were trounced in local elections. The 51-year-old Valls has been compared with “New Labor” former British premier Tony Blair both for his pro-business ideas and his dashing style.

 However Valls is a bogeyman to the Socialist left, having proposed changing the party's name and criticized the flagship 35-hour work week it pioneered over a decade ago.

The choice of Valls, the Barcelona-born son of Spanish immigrant parents, suggested Hollande is set to amplify an EU-mandated shift towards pro-market economic reforms and public spending cuts rather than turn back as left-wingers demanded.

Political commentators have compared Valls, who has taken a tough line on crime and Roma migrants, with former conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, who earned his spurs as a security hardliner in the same ministerial position.

Speculation of a cabinet reshuffle mounted after Ayrault acknowledged he and his ministers bore part of the blame for Sunday's defeat, which saw 155 towns swing to the centre-right UMP and the far-right National Front claim 11.

Facing the lowest popularity levels of any president in the 56-year-old Fifth Republic, Hollande changed tack earlier this year towards a more pro-business stance aimed at spurring investment and jobs through cuts in corporate social charges.

The president has said a mid-April vote in parliament on his “responsibility pact” package of 30 billion Euros in tax cuts for companies will also be a vote of confidence in his government.