France’s ‘top cop’ is nation’s new PM
2 April 2014 1:03 AM GMT
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, appointed prime minister by President Francois Hollande on Monday, is a centrist with a tough stance on law and order that is popular with the public but controversial in his own Socialist party.
The photogenic 51-year-old, naturalised son of a Spanish immigrant, is one the youngest ministers in Hollande’s cabinet and an expert in political communication.
He will need those skills to sell the president’s U-turn to more business-friendly policies and impose discipline in place of cacophony. His consistently high approval ratings as the nation’s tough-talking ‘top cop’ have contrasted with the record low poll ratings suffered by the president. Some who know Valls say he harbours presidential ambitions of his own but that did not deter Hollande from picking him.
The photogenic 51-year-old, naturalised son of a Spanish immigrant, is one the youngest ministers in Hollande’s cabinet and an expert in political communication.
He will need those skills to sell the president’s U-turn to more business-friendly policies and impose discipline in place of cacophony. His consistently high approval ratings as the nation’s tough-talking ‘top cop’ have contrasted with the record low poll ratings suffered by the president. Some who know Valls say he harbours presidential ambitions of his own but that did not deter Hollande from picking him.
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