Dominique de Villepin, who is a man, is changing jobs as Jacques Chirac shuffles his cabinet after major socialist victories in the last poll: France announces new government; de Villepin to head Interior Ministry.

PARIS (AP) - Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, a relentless critic of the U.S. war in Iraq, will head the Interior Ministry under a major French government shakeup announced Wednesday.

De Villepin, France’s top diplomat since May 2002, will be replaced by European Commissioner Michel Barnier, the presidential Elysee Palace announced. The current interior minister, the highly popular Nicolas Sarkozy, becomes head of the Finance Ministry, but his role - perhaps the government’s toughest - could expand to encompass command of ambitious but controversial reform programs.

Sarkozy was responsible for what little backbone the French had in their dealings with the radical unassimilated elements of their Muslim immigrants. De Villepin is very unlikely to show the same spine; the appeasement is going to get worse. The French ban on Islamic headscarves in school will be the first to fall.