1.
GV EXTERIOR Elysee Palace and Mme. Nicole Questiaux arriving (2 shots)
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2.
GV PAN Jacques Delors entering building
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3.
SV PAN Claude Cheysson entering
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4.
SV PAN Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy entering
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5.
SCU PULL BACK SV PAN INTERIOR Mitterrand and ministers seated around table (2 shots)
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6.
GV EXTERIOR Cabinet assembled on steps outside Elysee Palace (2 shots)
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Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: INTRODUCTION: In France, President Francois Mitterrand presided over his first Cabinet meeting on Wednesday (27 May), 12 days after he became the political leader of his country. He had selected a Cabinet of 42 people, including six women.

SYNOPSIS: One of the six women is Madame Nicole Questiaux, the Minister of National Solidarity, whose task is to smooth the inequalities out of French life. Madame questiaux is one of five Cabinet members drawn from the intellectual left-wing Cered branch of the French Socialist Party.

Monsieur Jacques Delors has been given the key portfolio of Finance. He is among the 11 non-parliamentarians in a Cabinet containing 31 ministers and 12 junior secretaries of state.

External Relations Minister, Claude Cheysson, also has no parliamentary seat....and Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy has pledged cautious change for France.

President Mitterrand was to tell his colleagues that the continuity of the State was a prime essential for good order in international relations. So his government had to honour and carry out those international obligations that France had already pledged herself to perform. The president pointed out that this attitude would not affect moving the country in the direction his party wanted it to go.

The new administration plan to send envoys to several countries, notably in the Near East, to pass on assurances of continued good relations, and to explain its political aims and ambitions. Internally decentralisation and defending the franc will be major priorities.