President Hollande has also been embarrassed by revelations that his former Socialist Party treasurer, Jean-Jacques Augier, held personal investments in two offshore companies in the Cayman Islands.
He will be joined by Michel Barnier, a conservative former minister for Europe who is loyal to President Jacques Chirac and currently a senator from his Gaullist party.
Horrified by the consequences of Thatcherite economics, first the unions and then the party turned to the social democratic Europe of Jacques Delors as a countervailing force.