President Jaques Chirac today appointed interior minister Dominique de Villepin as France's new prime minister, as his government struggled to recover from Sunday's overwhelming rejection of the proposed European constitution.
The announcement came minutes after Mr Chirac accepted the resignation of prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin. Mr Raffarin was forced to hand in his notice two days after 55% of the French electorate voted against the EU constitution despite the best efforts of Mr Chirac's government to secure a "yes".
Tomorrow the Dutch vote in their referendum on the European constitution. Opinion polls in the Netherlands suggest the "yes" camp will suffer an even larger defeat. Both France and the Netherlands were founding members of the EU, and their refusal to accept the constitution could kill it off entirely.
The French vote, and the likely Dutch rejection tomorrow, also threw into doubt the future of a British referendum. The prime minister, Tony Blair, refused to cancel referendum plans immediately as such a move could be seen as pre-empting the Dutch vote. He called instead for a period of reflection, as leaders across the 25 EU member states absorbed the ramifications of the French rejection.
An official British announcement could come on Monday when the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, makes a Commons statement on the implications for the UK.
Mr de Villepin, 51, is a Chirac loyalist who became the voice of France's opposition to the US-led war in Iraq when he served as foreign minister. However it remains to be seen how French voters will respond to the appointment of a man who has never been elected to public office.
Mr Chirac was due to address the nation later today and lay out policy for the new government, which faces unemployment of 10% and serious questions over its status and power in the European Union. He will be hoping the reshuffle will reinvigorate his government ahead of an expected presidential and parliamentary election in 2007.
Mr de Villepin saw off a challenge from Nicolas Sarkozy, a former finance minister who now leads Mr Chirac's centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). One MP said that Mr Sarkozy, 50, was being brought back into the government as interior minister, while remaining the leader of the UMP. Mr Sarkozy, who plans to contest the presidency in 2007, had wanted the prime minister's job for himself.
The full government is not expected to be announced until tomorrow.
Mr Raffarin pledged in a news conference today that the new government would bring down the unemployment rate. He said he expected his successor to "push forward the inheritance of humanism in Europe that will continue to be my struggle". He added that he would continue to serve France in a different capacity, but did not offer details.
Some voters said they voted "no" on Sunday as punishment for their leaders, especially Mr Raffarin, whose dismal approval ratings established him as one of the most unpopular prime ministers since the French Fifth Republic was established in 1958.
His reforms of pensions and the health system had proved unpopular, and an opinion poll on Sunday for TF1 television found that 62% of respondents thought it was time for Mr Raffarin to go.