Dominique de Villipin (here pushing to lift the arms embargo on China) has been nominated Prime Minister by Jacques Chirac today. De Villipin made his splash on the international scene openly campaigning against the US in the days before the start of the Iraq War. He recently wrote a moving critique of France and the US in his book, The Shark and the Seagull, where he infers that the US is a vicious predator, (via No Pasaran):
The shark is a metaphor for the United States while the seagull represents France. Villepin’s shark (masculine in French) “drives through the sea to snatch its prey, . . . a symbol of power, strength and the refusal to be halted by the complexity of the world.” His seagull (feminine in French) is a much more spiritual and graceful creature, at home in the heavens, blending and merging with the air, “intoxicated by the sky.”
Update: The euro drops in the wake of the De Villipin announcement.