Michel Barnier Named French Prime Minister

Michel Barnier Named French Prime Minister

Sophie Ulm

Staff Writer

Michel Barnier has been named as France’s new prime minister by French President Emmanuel Macron, according to NPR. A moderate conservative with a 50-year political career, Barnier was named prime minister almost two months after snap elections were held in France to determine a new government.

Barnier is best known in France for his role in negotiating the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union (Brexit) from 2016 to 2019, a role which earned him the nickname “Monsieur Brexit,” according to the BBC. There is some hope that his role in these talks will help him navigate the tense political climate in France. 

Barnier has hinted since his selection that his policies might include increased taxes, opening debate on Macron’s contentious pension plan, and harder immigration policies. France is currently undergoing an excessive-deficit procedure in Brussels for overspending on their 2023 annual budget, reports Politico, and Barnier has stated that he does “not want to raise the debt of our country.” Barnier has also pledged that his government “will not only be a right-wing government,” with many believing that he will welcome some members of Macron’s centrist party and potentially some left-wing leaders.

Macron’s office said in the announcement that Barnier would be tasked “with forming a unifying government to serve the French country and the French people,” reports NBC News. The 73-year-old has served as French foreign minister, European affairs minister, environment minister, agriculture minister, and twice as a European commissioner. Barnier becomes the oldest prime minister since 1958, the beginning of the modern French government. 

Talks for who would lead the new government became difficult after no party won a clear majority in the snap elections that Macron said he hoped would bring the nation a “moment of clarity,” reports The Associated Press. All three of the main blocs fell short of reaching the 289-seat majority needed to control the 577-seat National Assembly, with the New Popular Front leftist coalition coming the closest at 180 seats. Macron’s centrist coalition came in second with just over 160 seats while the conservative coalition claimed over 140 seats.

Under French law, the president is solely responsible for selecting the prime minister and does not have to select a candidate from the party with the most seats in the National Assembly. After meetings with leaders of the centrist and right coalitions who said they would not support the New Popular Front’s candidate, Macron called on the New Popular Front to create a plan to work with the other parties and find a candidate who could pass a censure-vote in the National Assembly, according to Al Jazeera. After meeting with  several candidates, Macron decided on Barnier, who seems to have the backing of the centrist coalition as well as some parties in the right-wing coalition.

After the naming of Barnier as Prime Minister, several leaders in the New Popular Front accused the election of having been “stolen,” according to Reuters, and have said that Macron had not listened to the voice of the people in snap elections by picking a member of the conservative party, which came in third. Leftist leaders are now calling for demonstrations over the weekend to protest the decision.

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