2024-09-05 13:44:45
Two months after France’s parliamentary elections, President Emmanuel Macron has finally named Michel Barnier as Prime Minister.
After 60 days of political deadlock in France, Barnier, 73, who served as the Brexit negotiator of the European Union, became the oldest Prime Minister in modern French history, succeeding Gabriel Attal, who – at 35 – had is the youngest.
The veteran right-wing politician has held a string of top jobs as minister, European Union commissioner and Brexit negotiator during a half-decade political career that has seen him push further to the right in recent years – and his longevity has given him ‘French Joe Biden’ epic.
Macron has asked the new Prime Minister to, “form a united government in the service of the country”.
The president was “convinced” to appoint Barnier as he met the conditions for providing a stable administration and would receive the broadest support.
The former foreign minister and EU commissioner is a “Macron accomplice” and will not be immediately elected by parliament, an adviser to the president told AFP.
A minister in the outgoing government, who also asked not to be named, said “he is very popular with right-wing members of parliament without being an irritant on the left”.
In 2022, Barnier set his sights on the Elysée in the presidential elections, but lost the nomination for Les Republicains – and has been largely absent from French politics ever since.
But your political views from the past two years may dictate your political direction now.
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Barnier positions in 2022
As a candidate, he vowed to “be a reforming French president, to respect the French people and be respected by France”.
But he surprised some in the European Union by setting his stance on the right side of the political spectrum, calling for a ‘electric shock’ on security, a freeze on immigration and for France to free itself from the supervision of the European Court, to the confusion of the former colleague in Brussels.
Barnier said he would organize a referendum if elected, asking voters to approve constitutional changes and parliament’s power to set migrant quotas each year.
He also proposed reinstating conscription in a bid to woo conservative voters. The last of France’s drafts were withdrawn in 2001 after former president Jacques Chirac completed nearly a century of military service.
Barnier’s policy two years ago also included a moratorium on immigration and a dramatic call for France to regain its judicial independence from European courts.
He declared that he did not “really like the idea of European sovereignty”, and took aim at what he called the “German control” of the European Union. He said: “I know what I’m talking about.
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Barnier’s backstory
With half a year’s work behind him, Barnier, who proudly raised his origins in the French Alps above Paris, first became a member of parliament aged just 27.
As well as serving two terms as an EU commissioner and handling the thorny negotiations over Britain’s exit from the bloc, Barnier served as a minister under the right-wing administrations of presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.
Opponents note that as a young conservative lawmaker, he voted against homosexuality in 1981.
He is perhaps best known outside the EU for taking on the task of negotiating Britain’s exit from the European Union at the party level in 2016.
His handling of negotiations was widely respected. He later wrote about his experience in his book My Secret Brexit Diary: The Glorious Illusion.
Although the headline made his position on the UK’s decision to leave the EU clear, he avoided gossip.
“There is definitely something wrong with the British system … every passing day shows that they are ignorant of the consequences of what is really at stake,” he wrote.
How did they find him?
Barnier’s first challenge after moving to Matignon will focus on a possible no-confidence motion in parliament. Hard-left politicians have already said the decision meant the July election was ‘stolen’, after the far-left NFP party was ignored – despite their success in the polls.
Even within his own political party, Barnier’s appointment to the prime ministerial hotseat has not been met with universal approval. An LR MP told AFP that he exemplified “everything the French do not want”.
Macron appears to be counting on the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) of three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen not to block Barnier’s appointment.
Therefore, Le Pen has said that support for the new Prime Minister will “depend on his program”.
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