Jaques Chirac's decision to appoint Dominique de Villepin prime minister is a safe option that indicates the French president is not seeking radical change despite domestic problems being blamed for the government's defeat in Sunday's referendum.
The senator's son, a former foreign minister and writer who speaks excellent English, has long been close to Mr Chirac. He was France's voice at the UN Security Council in the Iraq crisis in 2003, arguing that war should be a last resort.
Mr Chirac spent more than an hour with his new prime minister this morning after Jean-Pierre Raffarin resigned following the rejection of the EU constitution by French voters.
Mr de Villepin takes over at a difficult time: unemployment is running at 10 per cent and the French political establishment is reeling. His aristocratic air and the fact that he has never stood for election could be a drawback as the government tries to reconnect with the people.
But Mr Chirac's decision to appoint him rather than the popular reformer Nicolas Sarkozy is a bold political move.
Mr Sarkozy, a two-time minister who heads Mr Chirac's governing centre-right party, will be brought back into the new government as interior minister and his promotion indicates his power within the governing party because he has been openly critical of Mr Chirac and his presidential ambitions are well known.
Before Sunday's referendum, Mr Sarkozy had delivered a veiled warning against making Mr de Villepin prime minister. He said only people who have held elected to office "have the right to speak in the name of France." Mr de Villepin has never been elected.
Another sign of the danger Mr Sarkozy poses to Mr Chirac is the president's decision to allow him remain head of the party. Mr Chirac previously has said the job is incompatible with holding a government post.
And keeping control of the UMP would give Mr Sarkozy the electoral machine he will need if he runs for the presidency in 2007.
The appointment of Mr Sarkozy allows Mr Chirac to project an image of unity on the centre-right - at a time when the main opposition Socialist Party is reeling from splits over the EU constitution.
Opposition Socialists dismissed the appointment and the accompanying cabinet reshuffle as superficial. Jean-Marc Ayrault called de Villepin's appointment the "ultimate attempt to save an administration in agony."
"The new prime minister will have no economic, financial or social room for manoeuvre," he said.
Philippe Moreau Defarges, a researcher at the French Institute for International Relations described the appointment as a "a real catastrophe,"
"People will come out on the streets to show their anger. It's a man who has never been elected, who doesn't represent the people at all. This will turn out badly. The crisis is not over yet."
AP