AKIPRESS.COM - French President Francois Hollande on Monday named Interior Minister Manuel Valls as a new Prime Minister of France, replacing Jean-Marc Ayrault, French media report.

"It's time to move to a new stage. So I told Manuel Valls to lead France's government. It will be a limited, coherent and united team, a fighting government," Hollande announced during a televised speech addressed to French people.

Reshuffle of Hollande's first government came after the Socialist Party was uprooted from 155 towns that had swung to the center-right UMP in a race dominated by the conservatives.

Weakened by splits between government members and alarming number of jobseekers, the PS collected 42 percent of the votes, seven percentage points behind UMP.