PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will appoint his former health minister, Olivier Veran, as his government’s new spokesman, BFM TV reported on Monday ahead of a wider government reshuffle expected later in the day.
Veran is known as a thorough technician who became visible to a large public as a key minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, steered the country through the larger part of the health crisis.
New appointments for the posts of environment, health and housing minister are also expected.
The reshuffle has become necessary for Macron after some ministers were defeated in lower house elections last month, forcing them to step down, in line with French political tradition.
Some cabinet seats had also been vacant since Macron’s re-election in April.
But the scope of the overhaul, in which Macron also seeks to balance power in his own alliance that was shaken after loosing the absolute majority in June and send a signal to voters he has heard their call for change, may be larger.
Current government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire won her race for a parliamentary seat in a wealthy district of Paris.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Tom Hogue, Robert Birsel)
