Former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was today announced as France‘s new Prime Minister almost two months after France’s snap elections ended in political deadlock.
The 73-year-old is now faced with the mammoth task of forming a government that will need to survive a National Assembly divided into three big political blocs – with none able to form a clear majority.
Following the recent political stalemate, President Emmanuel Macron has now called on Mr Barnier to take on the esteemed role, despite him not being a serving elected MP.
An official at Matignon, the prime minister’s official residence in Paris, said on Thursday afternoon: ‘Michel Barnier has been named prime minister by President Macron.’
The appointment means that Mr Barnier will become the oldest prime minister in the history of the 5th Republic –Â taking over from the youngest PM, Gabriel Attal, who is 35.
Michel Barnier, 73, was today announced as France’s new Prime MinisterÂ
Barnier pictured with Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee palace in Paris, on January 31, 2020, a few hours before Britain officially left the European Union
Mr Barnier immediately faces the possibility of a no-confidence vote in parliament, because of his apparent lack of democratic legitimacy.
Since the announcement, Macron appears to be counting on the far-right National Rally of three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen not to block the appointment of Barnier.
RN party leader Jordan Bardella said Barnier would be judged ‘on evidence’ when he addresses parliament.
Greens leader Marine Tondelier countered: ‘We know in the end who decides. Her name is Marine Le Pen. She is the one to whom Macron has decided to submit.’
Barnier was last in parliament in 1993, and is currently a member of The Republicans (LR) party – the current name for the Gaullist conservatives, who are in opposition.
Pressure has been building on President Macron to appoint a prime minister after a coalition led by his Renaissance party came second in a snap election in early July.
It was won by the Popular Front – a Leftist coalition specifically aimed at keeping the far-Right National Rally party from gaining power.
Mr Barnier did not emerge as a serious candidate to run a new French government until Thursday, when he was seen at the Elysee Palace.
He tried to become LR’s presidential candidate in 2022, but was eliminated in the first round of party voting with less than five per cent of the vote.
During the campaign, he took a hard line on immigration, saying it was ‘out of control,’
There is a looming deadline for France to start 2025 budget discussions, at a time when the country is under severe criticism from the EU for overspending.
On Thursday, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a National Rally MP, said Mr Barnier represented the ‘fossilised old world’, accusing the Élysée Palace of ‘going down the Jurassic Park’.
Barnier first become a French member of parliament aged just 27 in the 1970s and first entered government in the mid-1990s under late president Jacques Chirac.
Such is the longevity of Barnier’s top-level political career that he is known by some as the ‘French Joe Biden’ after the US leader whose long career has spanned a similar time.
The Brexit hardliner who once described UK prime minister Boris Johnson as a ‘bulldozer’, led the EU’s talks with Britain over its exit from the bloc from 2016 to 2021.
Barnier was named as France’s new Prime Minister, the Elysee palace announced on September 5, almost two months after legislative elections left the country in political deadlock. Pictured: Barnier and Macron at the 56th International Agriculture Fair (Salon international de l’Agriculture) at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on February 23, 2019
He has served four times as a cabinet minister and twice as a European Commissioner before becoming the head of the Brexit task force in 2016.Â
Barnier wrote a book about Brexit ‘My Secret Brexit Diary: A Glorious Illusion’, its title already stating clearly what he thought of the idea of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.
While true to his courteous reputation, Barnier steered clear of any salacious gossip in the published work, he never ceases to express his amazement at how his British counterparts were handling the process.
‘There is most definitely something wrong with the British system… every passing day shows that they have not realised the consequences of what is truly at stake here,’ he wrote.
Barnier, who was an unsuccessful candidate in the primary to become the conservative presidential candidate in 2021, is also seen as having views on domestic politics that are more compatible with the far right.
He triggered a swathe of backlash when he said France should regain its ‘legal sovereignty’Â and not be subject to the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.
He also triggered dismay in Brussels by calling for France to free itself from European court oversight.
To claw back France’s ‘space to manoeuvre’, Barnier said he would organise a referendum if elected, asking voters to approve constitutional changes and the ability of parliament to set immigrant quotas each year.
He declared he did not ‘really like the concept of European sovereignty’ and took aim at ‘German dominance’ in the European Union, adding ‘I know what I’m talking about.’
His appointment has even caused disquiet among allies with one LR member of parliament, asking not to be named, saying he epitomised ‘everything the French don’t want’.
He is ‘disconnected and will continue or finish killing the right,’ they said.
Macron in July refused to appoint the alliance’s candidate for prime minister, civil servant Lucie Castets, 37, arguing she was not in a position to govern with stability.Â
