French President Emmanuel Macron has named Édouard Philippe, the 46-year-old Mayor of Le Havre, as his Prime Minister.
Philippe is a a member of the centre-right Les Républicains party and is close to Alaine Juppé, the former Prime Minister.
The choice of Philippe -- widely predicted by political pundits -- indicates Macron's desire to draw support from the conservative opposition and create balance, according to Emmanuelle Schön-Quinlivan, lecturer in European politics at University College, Cork.
"Macron needs to re-tilt the people around him to the right as at the moment the main people around him are from the left. He needs to give a sign towards Les Républicains. This will be a sign to their followers that this government is genuinely from the left and the right," she told CNN.
Macron, the youngest French president in history at 39, is counting on winning votes from centre-right supporters in the legislative elections next month. His party is scrambling to get 577 candidates together to contest every seat in the country.
Philippe, a lawyer with experience working in the private sector, was born in Rouen and grew up in a left-wing environment.
He was a socialist in his younger days before switching his allegiances to the right.
A relatively youthful 46, he has only been a member of parliament for one term, serving in the National Assembly representing the constituency of Seine-Maritime in Normandy, northern France, since 2012.
He has been Mayor of Le Havre, a port city in northern France since 2010.
Philippe is close to Juppé, the Prime Minister of France from 1995 to 1995 who wanted to run as the Republican candidate in the presidential election but lost out to Francois Fillon.