POLITICS – White smoke, finally. Fifty-one days later, the new Prime Minister is known. On Thursday, September 5, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Michel Barnier as head of the new government. At 73, the Savoyard replaces Gabriel Attal, the youngest head of government of the Fifth Republic, and ironically becomes the oldest to hold the position. His mission is to “to form a unifying government in the service of the country.”
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« The President ensured that the Prime Minister and the future government would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the chance to unite as widely as possible “, we can read in the press release sent by the Élysée. This nomination puts an end to seven weeks of waiting, after the defeat of the presidential camp during the early legislative elections, the “Olympic Truce” decreed by the President of the Republic and the weeks of consultations that followed.
In a National Assembly without a majority group, the President of the Republic made the ” uncensorability ” the number 1 criterion for choosing the new head of government. It is for this reason that he rejected the Lucie Castets option, proposed by the New Popular Front which claims Matignon in view of the results of July 7, placing the left in the lead.
Former Brexit negotiator
Michel Barnier, former minister of Édouard Balladur and a figure of the right, must now tackle the formation of a government, while resisting a motion of censure. The latter’s absolute priority will then be the preparation of the 2025 budget, which must be submitted to the Bureau of the National Assembly on October 1st. Unless the executive decides to postpone the date. Unprecedented in the history of the Fifth Republic but legally possible, at the risk of provoking a parliamentary outcry.
An unsuccessful candidate in the LR primary for the 2022 presidential election, Michel Barnier comes from a political family that was largely defeated in the last legislative elections, with its numbers almost halving at the Palais Bourbon. His economic and European software is very close to that of Emmanuel Macron, which probably motivated the decision of the head of state, anxious that the new government not go back on its record, marked in particular by the pension reform and the immigration law. The man is also known for having taken on the role of negotiator, on behalf of the European Union, during Brexit. It remains to be seen whether this experience will allow him to survive in the face of such an eruptive Assembly.
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