New French government to hand itself a pay cut

This is about setting an example - Hollande:

FRANCE: France's new government, under Socialist President Francois Hollande, got down to business Thursday with the first order of business on their agenda being a pay cut for themselves.

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.

The new line-up also meets a promise to appoint an equal number of men and women in his cabinet, a first for France, although most of the senior posts went to men.

New prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said Hollande's government would waste no time and 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.

Like Hollande, who on Tuesday became France's first Socialist president since 1995, Ayrault has never previously held a ministerial post, the first time that both posts have been held by government rookies. Hollande tapped former prime minister Laurent Fabius, 65, as foreign minister and his campaign chief during the race against Nicolas Sarkozy, 54-year-old Pierre Moscovici, as finance minister.

Notably absent from the line-up was Socialist leader and former labour minister Martine Aubry, a key figure in the party's old-guard left wing, who said she would not join cabinet after being passed up for the premiership. Ayrault said the first order of business on Thursday would be the imposition of a 30 percent pay cut for the president and all ministers, as Hollande promised in the campaign.

“This is about setting an example,” he told France 2 television.

“I will also propose a code of conduct,” he said. “Everyone must sign this commitment on conflicts of interest, holding more than one office and not carrying out any other activities.” Fabius, prime minister under France's last Socialist president Francois Mitterrand between 1984 and 1986, will take over French diplomacy at an important time for Paris's relations with its European neighbours.

With anxiety running high over the fate of the eurozone, Hollande's choice of Moscovici, a former European affairs minister from 1997 to 2002, as finance minister also seemed aimed at addressing the European debt crisis.

Jean-Yves Le Drian, a 64-year-old local politician from Brittany, was named defence minister, while Manuel Valls, a free-market moderniser seen as on the right of the Socialist Party, was named interior minister.

Hollande also chose close ally Michel Sapin, 60, as labour minister and put Arnaud Montebourg, a 49-year-old from the left wing of the Socialist party, in charge of reindustrialisation. AFP