French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius leaving Government, Francois Hollande looks to reshuffle ahead of 2017 poll
laurent fabius france francois hollande government reshuffle
ABC News
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he is going to leave office, in a move set to trigger a wider reshuffle of the unpopular government.
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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says he is going to leave office, in a move set to trigger a wider reshuffle of the unpopular Government.

Mr Fabius told reporters he had participated in his last weekly cabinet meeting and that he expected the full reshuffle to be announced later this week.

"I will be leaving office," he said.

President Francois Hollande is expected to nominate Mr Fabius to head the country's top constitutional court.

The reshuffle is an opportunity for Mr Hollande to re-shape his team ahead of the 2017 presidential elections, as he seeks to improve his very low approval ratings.

He is fighting strong discontent in his Socialist party and amid allies over plans to strip French citizenship from people convicted of terrorism, and endless debates and Government flip-flops have hurt Mr Hollande's already faltering chances of winning re-election next year.

Speculations are rife in France over who could join his re-jigged Government, with Mr Hollande's former partner, Environment Minister Segolene Royal, or his previous prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, tipped as possible replacements for Mr Fabius.

A lot of attention will also be focused on whether former investment banker Emmanuel Macron, who has been the face of reforms for France's European partners but has irritated many of his government colleagues, will get a bigger portfolio.

Another question is whether Mr Hollande will call on lawmakers from the Greens party to join his cabinet, in a bid to build a wider left-wing alliance to gear up for the presidential election.

But analysts said a reshuffle was unlikely to do much to help Mr Hollande's popularity.

Mr Fabius, who had been widely expected to change jobs since the end of last year, told reporters he was likely to start in his new job early March, after parliamentary committees rubber-stamp his nomination.

The Constitutional Council is the highest constitutional authority in France.

Once France's youngest prime minister in the mid-1980s, Mr Fabius's key role as Mr Hollande's foreign minister has been to be part of an agreement deal on Iran's nuclear program and in December to help broker a global deal on climate change.