PARIS, Jan 12, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday

asked ministers to be "revolutionaries", after a government reshuffle that
left many of the same faces in place and raised doubts over gender equity and
policy priorities.

"I don't want ministers who administer, I want ministers who act," Macron
told the first cabinet meeting under France's youngest-ever Prime Minister
Gabriel Attal, people present told AFP.

"I don't want managers, I want revolutionaries," he said.

Naming the young, articulate Attal to the premiership and freshening the
ministerial roster is a bid by Macron to breathe new life into his flagging
second term, hobbled by the lack of an absolute majority in parliament.

But many of the people sitting around the cabinet table for the new
government's first weekly meeting Friday were still firmly in the same seats
as before the change.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, Justice
Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu remained
in place.

"Macron has managed to make a spectacular show with a team that at its core
looks very much like the previous one," conservative daily Le Figaro wrote.

"The new prime minister would doubtless have liked to go further with
renewing the team."

"Why would Macron give up his bosses when they could do him harm from the
outside?" left-leaning Liberation commented.

- 'Gendered ministries' -

The men clinging fast to the great offices of state have also meant immediate
blasts at Macron for failing to consider women.

"Equality between women and men must also be expressed in the heart of
sovereign power," said departing foreign minister Catherine Colonna --
replaced by a man, longtime Macron supporter Stephane Sejourne.

He was in a civil partnership with Attal, France's first openly gay prime
minister, but their relationship is now believed to be over.

Macron has since his first election in 2017 named female ministers to the
justice, defence and foreign affairs briefs, as well as former prime minister
Elisabeth Borne.

But now women have instead been confined to "gendered ministries", Women's
Foundation president Anne-Cecile Mailfert said.

Catherine Vautrin, a former supporter of conservative president Nicolas
Sarkozy, will head a super-ministry spanning health, labour and solidarity.

Amelie Oudea-Castera has had the education and youth briefs bolted on to her
former responsibility for sport, just months ahead of the Summer Olympic
Games in Paris.

And another poached conservative figure, Rachida Dati, will head the culture
ministry.

Speaking as she took over the job, Dati -- who has Moroccan-Algerian roots --
said Friday that French culture bestowed on her "the freedom to think, the
freedom to speak, the freedom to create, especially for women".

Nevertheless, the new team is "a very masculine government where women are
losing ground," Socialist Senator Laurence Rossignol said.

Macron's perceived snub to women has followed outcry from feminists over his
defence of Gerard Depardieu, saying multiple sexual assault allegations had
subjected the legendary actor to a "manhunt".

Even Macron's own wife Brigitte has since stressed "the importance of women's
voices".

- 'Relegated to the background' -

The two "super-ministries" headed by Vautrin and Oudea-Castera have also
raised questions about how much attention will be paid to France's strained
health and education systems.

"Is this nomination a sign that health is an important subject that deserves
a big ministry, or is it a sign that it doesn't deserve a ministry of its
own?" asked Agnes Giannotti, president of major doctors' union MG France.

Health appears "relegated to the background", said Patrick Gasser, president
of another doctors' union, Avenir Spe.

"I don't believe that this is a picture of boldness and transformation".

Vautrin herself said that "public hospitals and all health institutions must
be supported as well as modernised", hailing the "courage" of medical staff
and calling for them to have "stimulating working conditions".

Oudea-Castera said there would be "many synergies" between her slew of
portfolios and vowed to "keep up the work" of Attal, who promised blockbuster
reforms in the five months he spent at education before becoming prime
minister.

But Sophie Venetitay, head of the major middle and high school teachers'
union Snes-FSU, said that she would be a "part-time minister" on one of the
most sensitive briefs in government.