Premier Pauline Marois served notice Wednesday that separatists are now running Quebec, taking her oath to the Queen behind closed doors and stashing away the Maple Leaf during her inaugural speech.

Her new cabinet ministers also swore their oaths to the Queen in private, prior to the public ceremony in the legislature red room in Quebec City.

Marois, 63, visited Lt.-Gov. Pierre Duchesne before noon to take her oath, away from news cameras, following the lead of separatist predecessors Rene Levesque (1976, 1981) and Jacques Parizeau (1994).

But symbolic sovereigntist gestures will prove far easier than a real drive toward independence for the minority Parti Quebecois government.

The PQ was founded with sovereignty as its top priority, but Marois said Wednesday that battling corruption will be her main focus.

"The new government will impose the highest standards," she said. "As premier, I will be uncompromising in matters of integrity," Marois added to applause from her 54-member caucus and supporters.

Marois is Quebec's 30th premier and first-ever woman head of government, and one of four women currently leading a Canadian province.

She inherits the same angry students and rampant corruption that sunk Jean Charest in the Sept. 4 election but with one big disadvantage - she's outnumbered by opposition parties that don't share her sovereigntist ambitions.

QMI political analyst Jean Lapierre says Marois will have little margin for error if she hopes to hold onto power with an inexperienced team.

"Mrs. Marois can't make a mistake when she nominates her cabinet," said Lapierre, a former Liberal and Bloc Quebecois MP. "They have such a weak minority, they can't take any risks that could lead the government to be beaten quickly. So I have the impression that the bar is high for Mrs. Marois."

Opposition parties outnumber the PQ 71 to 54 in the legislature, and Marois will need support from the Liberals or the centrist third party, the CAQ, to push her agenda.

Aware of her weakened position, Marois didn't mention separation even once in her first news conference the day after the election.

But she has promised to request a meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to demand the federal government repatriate several powers to Quebec in areas of language, culture and employment insurance.

It still isn't clear if she'll be able to make good on a pledge to extend French-language laws to small businesses and federal agencies in Quebec, but the economy might end up trumping her nationalist plans.

The Conference Board of Canada said this month that economic growth in Quebec is well below the national average because of high debt, taxes and fees coupled with weak investment, low productivity and stagnant labour growth.

Speaking in Ottawa on Wednesday, Tory cabinet minister and Quebec MP Maxime Bernier said Marois will have to choose her priorities.

"I won't interfere in Mrs. Marois' decisions," said Bernier, minister of state for small business and tourism. "I can tell you that I am a proud federalist and we are concentrating on the priorities of the

Quebec population and the population of all of Canada, that's the economic situation."

Just before Marois took her oath Wednesday morning, Charest handed his resignation letter to the viceroy and returned to private life.

"I am very happy this morning," said Charest, 54, who spent 14 years in provincial politics and another 14 on the federal scene.

"For me it's a new life that is beginning for myself and my family," the expectant grandfather said, adding that he would make no further public statements about politics.

"My plan is to be grandfather, not a (meddler)."