France

The French have always likened their republic to an imaginary woman, Marianne, but have never allowed a real one to govern it. Last week, in a bold attempt to revive France's sluggish economy and give new zest to his flagging Socialist regime, President Francois Mitterrand named longtime political associate Edith Cresson, 57, an aggressive booster of French industry, as the nation's first woman Prime Minister.

"We are confronted with the necessity of constructing a balanced Europe, where France is as strong as Germany," she said. Her initial decision: to create an economic superministry patterned after Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry to oversee industry, finance, foreign trade and the budget.

"Mitterrand's Iron Lady," as the French press has dubbed her, replaces Michel Rocard, 60, whose three-year-old government was having increasing trouble piecing together parliamentary majorities even as it battled a burgeoning campaign-finance scandal. The unenviable task of damage control now falls on Cresson, leaving Rocard free to pursue his 1995 presidential ambitions.