HispanicBusiness

French President Francois Hollande presented a new moderate Socialist government Wednesday, selecting a combination of experience and youth to drive the country's economic recovery.

Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, a longtime leader of the Socialist Party in parliament whom Hollande named premier on Tuesday, was tasked with proposing a cabinet for appointment by Hollande.

The team of 34 ministers, which was announced by the presidency after drawn-out, back-room negotiations, is a mix of old and new faces, mostly drawn from the ranks of the Socialist Party (PS). Exactly half are women. The key ministries went to moderates over ideologues.

One figure conspicuously absent from the line-up is PS leader and mayor of Lille Martine Aubry, architect of France's 35-hour working week.

Aubry, 61, announced Wednesday she would not be part of the government after being picked over for prime minister.

She had been tipped for a super ministry combining education and culture.

But the combative labour minister, who criticized Hollande as "soft" when she ran against him for the Socialist presidential nomination last year, balked at playing second fiddle to the consensual Ayrault.

"Francois Hollande made a political choice in deciding not to appoint me to Matignon (name of the prime minister's residence)," she told Le Monde.

"We agreed that, in this configuration, my presence in government would have no meaning," she said, adding she would remain party leader.

Other senior Socialists willingly accepted top jobs. They include:

-- Laurent Fabius, a 65-year-old former prime minister under Francois Mitterand, became foreign minister.

-- Pierre Moscovici, 54, a former European Affairs minister who ran Hollande's election campaign, was made finance minister.

-- Manuel Valls, a 49-year-old former prime ministerial spokesman who ran against Hollande for the Socialist presidential nomination, was appointed to the interior ministry

There were also jobs for the younger generation.

-- Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, a 34-year-old Franco-Moroccan councillor in Lyon and rising star of the Socialist party, becomes government spokeswoman and minister for women's rights while Aurelie Filippetti, a 38-year-old parliamentarian received the culture portfolio.

Hollande, who has never held a ministerial post himself, will chair his first cabinet meeting on Thursday.

One of the government's first tasks will be to dock its' own pay. Hollande has pledged to follow the example of several other eurozone countries by cutting the salaries of the president and ministers. His proposed 30-per-cent cut would be the steepest to date in the eurozone.

It would leave Hollande with a monthly salary of 13,500 euros (17,656 dollars) and ministers with 9,800 euros, according to Liberation newspaper, nearly 25 per cent less than German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Merkel will take home 18,104 euros after the 5.7-per-cent pay rise she and her cabinet gave themselves Wednesday comes into effect.