Current French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve was named the country’s new prime minister on Tuesday, after Manuel Valls resigned to join the presidential race next year. President Francis Hollande’s office made the announcement. “He’s [Cazeneuve] a strong personality, with experience of state affairs,” an official in the president’s entourage told Reuters.

Cazeneuve will head the Socialist government till June next year when the legislative elections will be held. He had monitored the French government’s response to the number of terror attacks in France in the recent past. Government officials had earlier said that either Cazeneuve or French Health Minister Marisol Touraine will replace Valls.

Valls had stepped down on Monday to seek a Socialist Party nomination for the presidential election in 2017. His road to secure a party ticket was cleared after Hollande said he would not run for office. Valls is the first leader of the country since France’s Fifth Republic was created in 1958 to not seek a second term. Of the eight other contenders for Socialist Party nominee, former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg is likely to be his chief rival.