JEAN-MARC AYRAULT, a moderate Socialist with an affinity for Germany, took office as France’s prime minister Wednesday and got to work by naming his Cabinet — a lineup that includes allies and veterans of previous governments.

    The stately, silver-haired Ayrault — a former German teacher and long-time ally of President Francois Hollande — has made pragmatism his hallmark in holding together the Socialists’ fractious parliamentary group as its floor leader since 1997.

    Ayrault has led the country’s Socialists in the lower house of Parliament for more than a decade, but his knowledge of Germany and ability to speak German have attracted the most attention.

    “The essential thing ... is that we get to work very quickly in the service of the French people,” Ayrault told reporters.

    With his understanding of Germany’s language and culture, the conciliatory Ayrault could be a bridge-builder with Berlin after a bruising presidential election race in France that focused on Hollande’s demands to renegotiate a German-inspired budget discipline pact for Europe.

    He has said that the Paris-Berlin partnership must be carefully tended. “The Franco-German relationship cannot function without a certain intimacy,” he wrote on his blog. “It needs constancy and stability.”

    “He is seen as the man who understands Germany,” Angelica Schwall-Duren, minister for European affairs for the German state North Rhine-Westphalia, said in a recent French radio interview. “He is a mediator. He could be of much help in making the Franco-German couple function well.”

    At home, his new government will also face the difficult task of selling inevitable deficit-cutting measures to a public weary of unemployment running at nearly 10 percent.

    “This is the outcome of a long fight alongside Francois Hollande for the 15 years we have known each other,” Ayrault said, adding that despite his reputation for shyness he was not afraid to admit he was moved by the appointment. “I am aware of the difficulty of the task, the mission which awaits me.”

    Mayor of the western city of Nantes, the reserved Ayrault was a special adviser to Hollande’s election campaign, entrusted with liaising with other European left parties, particularly the opposition Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Germany.

    Behind the scenes, the 62-year-old has carried out sensitive missions for Hollande. Last year, he met a senior adviser to Merkel in Berlin in an effort to build ties with her conservative government.

    “Ayrault is someone who believes above all in dialogue and he understands Europe very well,” said Jacques-Pierre Gougeon, a specialist in Franco-German relations at IRIS research institute.

    A weaker-than-expected showing by the far-left in the first round of France’s presidential election April 22 suggested Ayrault may have a simpler task in building support for legislation than many in the Socialist camp had feared.

    Communist-backed candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon finished fourth in the poll with just 11 percent, suggesting the Socialists may be less reliant on their far-left neighbors after parliamentary ballots June 10 and June 17.

    Hollande, who like Ayrault comes from the Socialists’ moderate social democrat wing, insists he wants to hand back influence to the prime minister after five years in which Nicolas Sarkozy concentrated presidential power.

    Hollande is also determined to involve parliament more in euro zone crisis management after Sarkozy handed control over strategy to a handful of unelected advisers.

    The son of a factory worker, Ayrault has sat in parliament since 1986 and was initially on the Socialists’ left wing before gradually shifting toward social democracy.

    He, like Hollande, has never held ministerial office.

    But Ayrault — an admirer of the German model where parliament is consulted on euro zone policies — could play a crucial role in coaxing legislative colleagues into backing crisis measures.

    “Ayrault has a very parliamentary outlook. He believes the parliament in France does not have enough influence,” Gougeon said. “And he knows Hollande very, very well.”

    Hollande insisted that he wanted a prime minister with whom he has a strong personal relationship.

    One of Ayrault’s first tasks would be to help soothe relations with Berlin over Hollande’s plan to temper the fiscal compact signed by 25 EU leaders by adding a growth focus.

    “The treaty is incomplete,” Ayrault said in a recent interview, adding a supplementary growth pact was required. “We need to discuss this, to reopen the process. Each side needs to take a step toward the other. We need to find a consensus.”

    But he emphasized that an Hollande government would stick to promises to balance the budget by the end of its five-year term, after France posted a deficit of 5.2 percent of GDP last year.

    “All public spending will be evaluated to see if it is useful or not,” Ayrault said.

    Ayrault long seemed destined to stay a provincial politician after winning the mayoralty of Nantes in 1989.

    Last week, French media publicized a suspended sentence and 4,500-euro (US$5,727) fine which Ayrault received in 1997 for an improperly tendered contract to print a Nantes local newspaper, saying this was incompatible with Hollande’s vow to clean up politics.

    Ayrault said he took responsibility for the mistake because he was mayor but he was not personally involved in the affair.

    “My personal integrity has never been questioned. There was never any question of personal enrichment or political financing. I am an honest man and I will remain an honest man,” he said.

    Ayrault said Hollande’s new government would waste no time and would hold its first meeting 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.

    Ayrault said the first order of business 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.”

    After meeting Thursday, Ayrault’s Cabinet will help plan the Socialist strategy for their campaign to win a parliamentary majority in June legislative elections — a key test for the party.

    The Socialists must win a comfortable majority in parliament in order to pass legislation without requiring the support of smaller parties such as the Communists.

    Ayrault’s track record of keeping parliament’s often-unruly bloc of Socialists in line fits with Hollande’s vow to seek a consensus-building government.

    Ayrault was born in 1950 in Maulevrier in western France’s Nantes area. He has a degree in German literature and was a high-school German teacher.

    Since 1989, he has served as mayor of France’s sixth largest city, Nantes. He has headed the Socialists’ group in the National Assembly of France since 1997 but has never held a ministerial post.

    He was married to a teacher of French literature and has two children.(SD-Agencies)