French President Macron names ex-Brexit negotiator as new Prime Minister

French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Michel Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, as his new prime minister on Thursday, in a bid to put an end to political paralysis following an inconclusive snap election.

A key question will now be whether Barnier’s government will manage to get reforms adopted by a deeply divided parliament.

The discreet, conservative politician will quickly face a baptism of fire as time is running out to prepare France’s 2025 budget, which could trigger a vote of no confidence if other parties are not satisfied.

Barnier is a staunch pro-European and a moderate career politician, but he toughened his discourse considerably during his failed 2021 bid to get his conservative party’s ticket for the presidential election, saying immigration was out of control – a view shared by the RN.

REFORMS
Barnier’s political views are overall quite close to Macron’s, and it was crucial for the French president that his new prime minister would not try to undo reforms pushed through over the past years, in particular Macron’s pension reform.

It remains unclear if Barnier will fully try to implement Macron’s political agenda or bring in new proposals. He will need in any case to negotiate with other parties to get legislation adopted in parliament.

As Macron’s hunt for a prime minister has dragged on, public finances have deteriorated and outgoing Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire says tens of billions of euros in budget cuts are needed to plug the hole.

Macron’s gamble to call the snap parliamentary election in June backfired, with his centrist coalition losing dozens of seats and no party winning an absolute majority. Voters did, however, rally to deny the RN a victory.

The left’s New Popular Front alliance came first but Macron ruled out asking them to form a government after other parties said they would immediately vote it down. Instead, he waited weeks to make his choice.

The left on their own won’t have enough votes to vote Barnier down, but could call street protests.

RN lawmaker Sebastien Chenu told BFM TV that the far-right party would wait to see what Barnier has to say on immigration, and on changing France’s voting system. It favours proportional representation to replace France’s system of two-round voting for single constituencies.

Lawmaker Laurent Jacobelli, also from the RN, said a condition for its support was that parliament be dissolved as soon as possible – which would be early July.

Still, the RN was not particularly enthusiastic about Barnier.

“They are taking out of mothballs those who have governed France for 40 years,” Jacobelli told TF1.