PARIS (Reuters) - French Interior Minister Manuel Valls, appointed prime minister by President Francois Hollande on Monday, is a centrist with a tough stance on law and order that is popular with the public but controversial in his own Socialist party.
The photogenic 51-year-old, naturalised son of a Spanish immigrant, is one the youngest ministers in Hollande's cabinet and an expert in political communication. He will need those skills to sell the president's U-turn to more business-friendly policies and impose discipline in place of cacophony.