Macron demands 'revolutionary' government but few new faces

"I don't want ministers who administer, I want ministers who act," Macrontold the first cabinet meeting under France's youngest-ever Prime MinisterGabriel Attal, people present told AFP.
"I don't want managers, I want revolutionaries," he said.
Naming the young, articulate Attal to the premiership and freshening theministerial roster is a bid by Macron to breathe new life into his flaggingsecond term, hobbled by the lack of an absolute majority in parliament.
But many of the people sitting around the cabinet table for the newgovernment's first weekly meeting Friday were still firmly in the same seatsas before the change, reports BSS.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, JusticeMinister Eric Dupond-Moretti and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu remainedin place.
"Macron has managed to make a spectacular show with a team that at its corelooks very much like the previous one," conservative daily Le Figaro wrote.
"The new prime minister would doubtless have liked to go further withrenewing the team."
"Why would Macron give up his bosses when they could do him harm from theoutside?" left-leaning Liberation commented.
- 'Gendered ministries' -
The men clinging fast to the great offices of state have also meant immediateblasts at Macron for failing to consider women.
"Equality between women and men must also be expressed in the heart ofsovereign power," said departing foreign minister Catherine Colonna --replaced by a man, longtime Macron supporter Stephane Sejourne.
He was in a civil partnership with Attal, France's first openly gay primeminister, but their relationship is now believed to be over.
Macron has since his first election in 2017 named female ministers to thejustice, defence and foreign affairs briefs, as well as former prime ministerElisabeth Borne.
But now women have instead been confined to "gendered ministries", Women'sFoundation president Anne-Cecile Mailfert said.
Catherine Vautrin, a former supporter of conservative president NicolasSarkozy, will head a super-ministry spanning health, labour and solidarity.
Amelie Oudea-Castera has had the education and youth briefs bolted on to herformer responsibility for sport, just months ahead of the Summer OlympicGames in Paris.
And another poached conservative figure, Rachida Dati, will head the cultureministry.
Speaking as she took over the job, Dati -- who has Moroccan-Algerian roots --said Friday that French culture bestowed on her "the freedom to think, thefreedom to speak, the freedom to create, especially for women".
Nevertheless, the new team is "a very masculine government where women arelosing ground," Socialist Senator Laurence Rossignol said.
Macron's perceived snub to women has followed outcry from feminists over hisdefence of Gerard Depardieu, saying multiple sexual assault allegations hadsubjected the legendary actor to a "manhunt".
Even Macron's own wife Brigitte has since stressed "the importance of women'svoices".
- 'Relegated to the background' -
The two "super-ministries" headed by Vautrin and Oudea-Castera have alsoraised questions about how much attention will be paid to France's strainedhealth and education systems.
"Is this nomination a sign that health is an important subject that deservesa big ministry, or is it a sign that it doesn't deserve a ministry of itsown?" asked Agnes Giannotti, president of major doctors' union MG France.
Health appears "relegated to the background", said Patrick Gasser, presidentof another doctors' union, Avenir Spe.
"I don't believe that this is a picture of boldness and transformation".
Vautrin herself said that "public hospitals and all health institutions mustbe supported as well as modernised", hailing the "courage" of medical staffand calling for them to have "stimulating working conditions".
Oudea-Castera said there would be "many synergies" between her slew ofportfolios and vowed to "keep up the work" of Attal, who promised blockbusterreforms in the five months he spent at education before becoming primeminister.
But Sophie Venetitay, head of the major middle and high school teachers'union Snes-FSU, said that she would be a "part-time minister" on one of themost sensitive briefs in government.