French Minister of Foreign affairs Laurent Fabius attends The 21st Session Of Conference On Climate Change | Pascal Le Segretain/ getty Laurent Fabius to leave French foreign ministry Hollande may take the opportunity to build a “war cabinet” ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

PARIS — Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, confirmed on Wednesday long-standing rumors that he would resign to take up the position as head of the Constitutional Council, the rough equivalent of the U.S. Supreme Court.

“This is a house I liked a lot and we’ve done a good job,” Fabius said in an interview with TV channel iTélé. Coming out of the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysée palace, he replied "Yes" to shouted questions from reporters if it had been his last.

Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll said French President François Hollande had formally put forward Fabius’ name as president of the Conseil Constitutionnel, and that the foreign minister would be auditioned by parliamentary committees next week. He will remain a government member until then.

Hollande is likely to seize on the occasion to reshuffle Prime Minister Manuel Valls’ government, and build what one of his aides this week called a “war cabinet” to lead France until the 2017 presidential election.

His first challenge is to find a replacement for Fabius, 69, a political heavyweight who had served as prime minister under Socialist president François Mitterrand in the early 1980s.

Ségolène Royal, the current environment minister who is Hollande’s former partner and mother of his four children, had been seen as the favorite for the job, but media speculation this week switched to Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was Hollande’s first prime minister from 2012 to 2014.

Ayrault has no foreign policy experience, save for the years he spent as a high-school German-language teacher. French foreign ministers traditionally have limited scope for taking initiatives, as foreign policy is one of the president’s main prerogatives.

Finance Minister Michel Sapin has also been mentioned in connection with the job, but has denied he wants the foreign ministry. Asked about this at a POLITICO event on the EU’s capital markets union on February 2, he replied: “See you next year.”

Hollande’s dilemma is whether to opt for a limited reshuffle, or a deeper change to build a coalition government of different political stripes. He might, for example, try to lure some members of the Green party, which hasn’t been part of the government since Valls became prime minister in March 2014.

Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron, torch-bearer of the cause for economic reforms, had been considered likely to remain in his job, if only to show that Hollande’s commitment to free-market policies remains unchanged. However, his statement voicing reservations about changing the constitution to permit the removal of French nationality from perpetrators of terrorist acts makes his future more uncertain.

The full government reshuffle may not be decided for a few days, until after a vote on the Constitutional reform by both houses of parliament