KEY POINTS:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Prime Minister, Francois Fillon, hit the ground running yesterday.
A couple of hours after Sarkozy had confirmed that Fillon, 53, was his choice as Prime Minister, the two men went jogging together in the Bois de Boulogne.
After 26 years of France being governed by elderly presidents, the appearance of President and Prime Minister in running shorts and shoes was a clear message to the French people.
Sarkozy, 52, and Fillon were flaunting themselves as youthful and vigorous men of action. The stunt also suggests the Sarkozy Administration will driven by "spin" and photo opportunities far more than its predecessors.
Sarkozy wants to reform the French economy but also to create a more "can-do", mood in the minds of the French people. For Tony Blair's "Cool Britannia", read Sarkozy's - and Fillon's - "Nouvelle France".
Fillon, a handsome and soft-spoken former social affairs and education minister, had been widely touted as Sarkozy's likely choice as PM. Since the new President has made it clear that he plans to be more involved in daily government than his predecessors, it is unclear how important a figure Fillon will be.
In his first statement he promised a government of "openness" which would promote French unity and restore the country's "eminent" place in the world.
"In a world of 6 billion people, the 60 million citizens of France must stick together," Fillon said. "To serve France means, finally, to re-establish our position of eminence, in a century full of challenges, some of them disturbing ones."
Fillon comes from a wealthy family at Sable-sur-Sarthe, near Le Mans, in western France, where he is the mayor and senator. His wife, Penny, is from Llanover, in Wales. They have five children.
She is the first British woman to be married to a French Prime Minister, a fact said to have caused consternation, and jealousy, among other centre-right politicians and their wives.
- INDEPENDENT
