Story highlights Cazeneuve oversaw the nation's security response to terror attacks

He replaces Manuel Valls, who is launching a presidential bid

Paris (CNN) French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve has been appointed prime minister, the Elysee Palace said Tuesday, after Manuel Valls stepped down from the role to launch a presidential bid.

Valls, 54, announced Monday he would put himself in the running to become the Socialist Party candidate for next year's presidential poll and will have to go through primary elections to win the party nomination.

Cazeneuve, 53, is best known for overseeing the nation's security forces in response to a spate of terror attacks that hit the country, killing 229 people in two years. The deadliest were the Paris attacks last year that left 130 people dead.

Cazeneuve is a trained lawyer but has had a long political career. In 1991 he became a councilor in the Cabinet of Thierry de Beaucé, then the secretary of state for international cultural relations, according to his biography on the Interior Ministry website.

The far-right National Front's Marine Le Pen will likely run in the first round of the presidential election.

He was elected a member of parliament in 1997 and has since served as minister of state for European affairs and minister of state for the budget, before being appointed interior minister.

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