Michel Barnier: ‘Monsieur Brexit’ for French PM

New French prime minister Michel Barnier delivers a speech during the handover ceremony, Thursday, September 5, 2024 in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron has appointed EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister after more than 50 days of interim government. | Photo Credit: AP

Opting for conservative Michel Barnier as Prime Minister, French President Emmanuel Macron has tasked the 73-year-old veteran politician with the tough challenge of winning the confidence of a deeply divided National Assembly. No stranger to tackling difficult situations, the former chief EU negotiator accepted the role, saying, “There is a need for respect, appeasement and unity,” as the Left party cried afoul over the ‘stolen election’.

Born on January 9, 1951, Mr. Barnier hails from La Tronche, South-Eastern France. Conservative ideals, which began as a teenager in the right-wing Union for the Defense of the Republic (UDR) party, led Mr Barnier to make his electoral debut in 1978, representing Savoie in the National Assembly. An avid skier and climber, Mr Barnier is credited with bringing the Winter Olympics to his home town of Savoie in 1992.

Dubbed a ‘fundamental Republican’, Mr Barnier has served as Cabinet Minister for the Environment (1993-95), European Affairs (1995-97), Foreign Affairs (2004-05) and Agriculture and Fisheries (2007-09). ) under four different conservative Prime Ministers. He has repeatedly voted for conservative options such as opposing the decriminalization of same-sex relationships between minors, the abolition of the death penalty, which could win him the position of right-wing politician in Parliament.

As the largest economy in the European Union – Britain – voted to leave the bloc in 2016, Mr Barnier, who lost the race to become President of the European Commission to Jean-Claude Juncker in 2014, was hit to negotiate a ‘Brexit’ deal. . Hand-raised by Mr. Juncker for a methodical approach, cool-headed and experienced as the EU’s internal market Commission (2010-14), Mr. Barnier negotiated with the UK who changed the leadership to ‘expensive and painful divorce’. After years of negotiations in which he built a consensus among the 27 EU members, he led the trade talks between the UK and the EU, which were finally ratified in 2020 and then became responsible for implementing them.

With growing protests against Mr Macron’s government, Mr Barnier has again turned his attention to French politics, running for President as a Republican candidate in France’s 2022 election. Opposing Mr Macron’s liberal policies, he has called for tougher immigration restrictions in France, opening 20,000 new prisons and strict punishments for crimes and offences. While his political views are similar to those of far-right candidate Marin Le Pen, his economic views echo Mr Macron’s on cutting taxes, raising the pension age and promoting the ease of doing business. His bid ended after he finished third in the 2021 Republican Congress with only 23.93% of the vote.

Divided France

Since then, Mr. Barnier has remained politically silent for three years until Mr. Macron called a snap election in July this year after the National Rally (RN) Ms. Le Pen defeated the Renaissance party in the European Parliament elections. In the election, which was held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7 and witnessed the highest turnout since 1981, no party won a majority. The left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) finished first with 182 seats, followed by Mr Macron’s centrist RN.

Mr Macron rejected the Left’s choice for PM, the 37-year-old socialist progressive Lucie Castets, admitting that “institutional stability dictates that this choice should not be retained”.

Looking for a consensus builder, Mr. Macron turned to Mr. Barnier with the opinion that Brexit negotiators will not cancel the most important policies and also won the most right-wing, conservative and centrist votes in the National Assembly. Mr. Barnier, who was appointed after 50 days of the interim government led by Gabriel Attal, took office on September 5 in the presence of his 40-year-old wife, Isabelle Altmayer – a lawyer by profession – at the Prime Minister’s residence at the Hôtel Matignon.

However, Mr. Barnier’s problems are far from over. His appointment has been rejected by the Left. Influential leader Jean-Luc Melenchon claimed that Mr Barnier’s appointment flew in the face of the public mandate, insisting, “The election has been stolen”.

While there is no official time limit for the President to appoint a new Cabinet proposed by the Prime Minister, the new government is generally formed within a few days of the PM’s appointment. To avoid his new government, Mr Barnier will have to once again navigate political factions to create a ‘balanced deal’.