Chirac Shakes Up French Leadership

(AP)  President Jacques Chirac appointed Dominique de Villepin, a loyalist who was France's voice against the Iraq war, as prime minister Tuesday to head a new government in response to a humiliating referendum defeat.

Villepin, 51, moves from the Interior Ministry to replace Jean-Pierre Raffarin, dumped after voters on Sunday roundly rejected Chirac's call for the ratification of a European Union constitution.

Chirac charged Villepin with the task of forming a new government. Villepin arrived at the presidential Elysee Palace just minutes after Chirac bid farewell to Raffarin with a handshake on the palace steps.

Nicolas Sarkozy, who heads Chirac's governing center-right party, is being brought back into government to head the Interior Ministry that Villepin vacates, lawmaker Yves Jego, who is close to Sarkozy, told France-Info radio. There was no immediate confirmation from Chirac's office of the reported appointment for Sarkozy.

The silver-haired Villepin takes over at a difficult time: Unemployment is running at 10 percent and the French political establishment is reeling from Sunday's referendum that marked a stinging humiliation for Chirac.

Raffarin, in a short address after the president accepted his resignation, promised that his successor would work to bring a significant drop in unemployment in the last two years of Chirac's second term — which could be his last.

"I confirm this commitment, even if the drop in the dollar and the rise in oil prices delay it for a few months," he said.

Raffarin defended his three-year record as prime minister, saying he acted to protect the future of the pension system and state health care, among other programs.

"I have always been aware that what is healthy for the nation does not go unblamed by public opinion," said Raffarin. Polls showed that he was one of the most unpopular prime ministers of the French Fifth Republic that was founded in 1958.