French interior minister appointed prime minister

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been appointed prime minister, the CNN reports, citing the Elysee Palace.

Cazeneuve replaces Manuel Valls, who announced Monday he would step down to  launch a presidential bid. Valls will put himself in the running as Socialist Party candidate for next year's election.

President Francois Hollande of the same party has said he will not seek reelection.

As interior minister, Cazeneuve has overseen the nation's security forces as a spate of terror attacks hit the country, including the Paris attacks last year that killed 130 people.

Valls, who has also previously served as interior minister, said on Monday that he wanted an independent France "inflexible on its values, when facing Xi Jinping's China, Putin's Russia, Donald Trump's America, Erdogan's Turkey," referring to the leaders of those countries.

If Valls wins the Socialist nomination, he will likely face Francois Fillon of the Republican Party and Marine Le Pen of the far-right Front National in the first round of the presidential election next spring.