The President of France, François Hollande (pictured), has reshuffled the government after a crushing defeat for the Socialists in local elections.
Meanwhile there have been changes in two other governments over the past few days, with 34-year old Taavi Rõivas becoming Estonia’s Prime Minister and Malta’s premier, Joseph Muscat, reshuffling his team and proposing Malta’s nominee to the next European Commission.
Jens Stoltenberg, Norway’s former prime minister, was named as the next Nato secretary-general, and candidate selections for May’s European Parliament elections continued.
Read our lists of European Parliament candidatesHere’s our overview of the latest news in Europe’s year of change:
François Hollande has reacted to the Socialists’ defeat in the second round of local elections by, as expected, dismissing the government headed by Jean-Marc Ayrault.
Ayrault’s successor is Manuel Valls, the Barcelona-born current interior minister. Much as with former president Nicolas Sarkozy in the same role, Valls’ hardline approach to law and order has proved popular with the electorate. However, his position on the right of the Socialist Party means he is treated with suspicion by some of his comrades.
A full government reshuffle is expected, with outgoing ministers – expected to include Pierre Moscovici, the finance minister – likely to be contenders for France’s nomination to the European Commission.
In the elections themselves, the Socialists lost more than 150 towns to the centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), while the far-right National Front won control 11 town halls. Turnout, at 62%, was the lowest ever for a French local election.
The one bright spot for the Socialists was the victory of Anne Hidalgo in Paris. She becomes the capital’s first female mayor.
Meanwhile in Malta the Prime Minister, Labour‘s Joseph Muscat, carried out a reshuffle prompted by the swearing-in this week of Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca as the country’s first female president.
As part of the changes, Karmenu Vella, the tourism minister, was named as the country’s proposed nominee to the next European Commission. Vella joins three other men who are (near-)certain nominees to the next Commission: Maroš Šefčovič, the Slovakian European Commission Vice-President for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration; Neven Mimica, the Croatian European Commissioner for Consumer Protection; and Andrus Ansip, the former Estonian prime minister.
Read our lists of potential nominees to the European CommissionAnsip’s successor in Estonia was also confirmed in his post last week: at 34 years old, Taavi Rõivas becomes the EU’s youngest head of government, leading a Liberal-Social Democratic coalition.
In Slovakia, the Prime Minister, Robert Fico, was defeated by 60% to 40% in the run-off for the (largely ceremonial) post of President. Millionaire businessman Andrej Kiska won the post in a result thought to reflect fears that the Social Democrats would take too much power.
On Friday the first of the ‘top jobs’ in Europe’s year of change was given to Jens Stoltenberg, the former Norwegian prime minister. He will succeed Anders Fogh Rasmussen as Secretary-General of Nato on 1 October.
Stoltenberg, aged 55, was Norway’s PM from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2005 to 2013. He is currently leader of the Norwegian Labour Party. In his time as prime minister he increased Norway’s defence spending and provided Norwegian forces for many Nato missions. His first key test will be to manage the frosty relations between the West and Russia over Ukraine.
The appointment of Stoltenberg makes the 2014 ‘jigsaw’ a little less complicated, in that Norway’s position outside the EU means that the Nato choice will not normally affect the balance of nationalities needed for the top jobs in Europe.
However, some of those who missed out – such as Belgium’s defence minister, Pieter De Crem, and Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski – may be more focused on other key roles now that the Nato job has gone elsewhere.
The weekend also saw another newspaper article that suggests the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, would favour the Danish premier, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, for the Commission presidency, should the Left top May’s polls.
Candidate selections for the European Parliament elections continued this weekend. Some of the highlights come from:
