French President Francois Hollande on Tuesday named Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to head his Socialist government until a new president is elected next May.
The shake-up was prompted by the resignation as prime minister of Manuel Valls, who announced on Monday that he would seek to run for president next year. Hollande himself announced last week that he would not seek a second term.
Cazeneuve will essentially be a caretaker prime minister ahead of the election, in which the far-right National Front party hopes to cause an upset similar to this year's anti-establishment votes in Britain, the United States and Italy.
As interior minister since April 2014, Cazeneuve, 53, has had to deal with a spate of deadly militant attacks that have killed more than 230 people since January 2015 and overseen a period of emergency rule imposed in their wake.
He was previously Europe minister and budget minister. A lawyer by training, Cazeneuve is nicknamed 'the Cardinal' by his own staff and by detractors on account of a cool and sometimes frosty manner.
Senior Socialist lawmaker Bruno Le Roux will replace Bernard Cazeneuve as France's interior minister, President Francois Hollande's office said. Le Roux, who heads the Socialist party in the country's lower house of parliament, will be in charge of overseeing the crucial counterterrorism portfolio in a country shaken by a series of deadly militant attacks.
There were no other major changes in the cabinet following PM Manuel Valls' resignation and replacement by Cazeneuve.
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Research Associate at Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA) at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University
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