President Nicolas Sarkozy was on Monday forced into considering an awkward ministerial reshuffle after his UMP party fared worse than expected in Sunday’s parliamentary elections and Alain Juppé resigned from his government, having failed to be elected.

Speculation swirled all day about who would replace Mr Juppé as the “super minister” in charge of the environment, energy and sustainable development. The ministry had been specially created for Mr Juppé, the former prime minister, who had been named number two in the cabinet.