The heavyweights in France’s new government

French President Francois Hollande unveiled a government of mainly moderate Socialists and longtime allies Wednesday as his new prime minister vowed to work quickly to put the country back on its feet.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Hollande’s new government would waste no time and would hold its first meeting on Thursday, despite it being a public holiday, and would address the economic crisis.

“What’s essential, and that’s why the cabinet will meet as soon as Thursday, is to get quickly to work to allow France to get back on its feet in a just way,” Ayrault told journalists.

New names

Here are short profiles of the leading figures in the new French cabinet unveiled on Tuesday:



Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius

Long considered to hold his own presidential ambitions, Fabius, 65, is a stalwart of the Socialists and was prime minister between 1984 and 1986.

A political disciple of former Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, Fabius was at the heart of the internecine squabbling that marked much of the Socialist Party’s history over the last 30 years.

Born in Paris to a wealthy antiques dealer, he is a graduate of the elite ENA school of government, was elected to the National Assembly in 1978, was made budget minister at 34 and prime minister at only 37.

His time as prime minister was tainted by accusations the government knowingly distributed blood products contaminated with HIV -- one of the biggest public health scandals in French history.

Fabius lost out to former prime minister Lionel Jospin in the battle to be Mitterrand’s heir but came back to government as Jospin’s finance minister between 2000 and 2002, where he cemented a reputation as a fiscal moderate.

He managed France’s joining of the euro in 2002 but broke with the Socialist party line and led a rebel “no” camp during France’s 2005 referendum on a European Constitution.

He backed former labor minister Martine Aubry against Hollande in the party’s primary last year, but has downplayed any divisions.



Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici

A former European affairs minister and protégé of ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Moscovici, 54, was Hollande’s campaign manager and transition chief.

Like Hollande and many of the French political elite he also attended ENA where he studied under Strauss-Kahn, who until his arrest on sex charges was the frontrunner to be the Socialist presidential candidate.

Strauss-Kahn introduced his student to then Socialist Party leader Jospin, under whom Moscovici served as minister for Europe from 1997 to 2002.

Moscovici was quick to rally behind Hollande after Strauss-Kahn was effectively forced from the race and he played a prominent role in the campaign.

The son of well-known French social psychologist Serge Moscovici, he ran for the Socialist Party leadership in 2008 and is a member of France’s National Assembly for the western Doubs region.



Interior Minister Manuel Valls

A free-market modernizer seen as on the right of the Socialist Party, Valls is, at only 49, a possible future presidential hopeful.

Currently the mayor and parliamentary representative for the Paris suburb of Evry, he served as communications director in Hollande’s campaign.

Eyebrows were raised at his appointment, with Hollande having defeated Valls in the Socialist primary, but he proved loyal and energetic on the trail.

Valls’s only serious misstep was to attend a drinks party hosted by a fellow lawmaker during the two rounds of the election, at which the politically toxic Strauss-Kahn was also a guest.

Valls was born in Spain and was naturalized as a French citizen at 20. He was an advisor to former Socialist prime ministers Jospin and Michel Rocard and is an opponent of Aubry.



Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian

Born into a Christian working-class family in the northwestern Brittany region, the 64-year-old Le Drian has worked with Hollande for over 30 years and shares his social-democratic principles.

A known pro-European, Le Drian is reportedly little interested in the courtly world of Parisian politics, and described by some as obstinate.

He travelled recently to Washington, London and Brussels to prepare for the NATO summit opening in Chicago on Sunday. Ironically, Hollande’s predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy offered him the defense portfolio in 2007, which he refused.

Le Drian served as MP and then mayor of his native Lorient where he familiarized himself with the defense portfolio thanks to regular contacts with local naval dockyards.

He was secretary of state for the sea under prime minister Edith Cresson in 1991 and also deputy head of the National Assembly’s defense committee.



Labor Minister Michel Sapin

One of the Hollande’s closest friends after the two graduated in the same year from ENA, Sapin, 60, is a lawmaker for the central Indre region and a former finance and civil service minister.

Born in Boulogne-Billancourt, a western suburb of Paris, he joined the Socialist Party in 1975 and was finance minister in 1992 and 1993 under Mitterrand.

He was also civil service minister between 2000 and 2002, has been a local councilor in the Paris suburb of Nanterre and mayor of the central town of Argenton-sur-Creuse.

A fiscal centrist among the Socialists, he is not considered a heavyweight within the party and is known for being affable and modest.