Michel Barnier was appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, September 5. He will succeed Gabriel Attal to form “a unifying government” and will be supported by the presidential camp and the LR. This announcement sparked the ire of the left but a more wait-and-see reaction from the National Rally.
It remains to be seen what policy the new tenant of Matignon intends to pursue. Michel Barnier has held many political positions, including senator, deputy and European deputy.
After a long stay in Brussels, he returned to French politics in 2021 during the primary of the Les Républicains party for the presidential election. The man who defines himself as a “social Gaullist” came third in the poll with 23.93% of the vote, behind Éric Ciotti and Valérie Pécresse.
• Retirement at 65
Central topic of discussions to find a majority and “red line” for many political parties, from the left to the National Rally: pension reform.
In 2021, Michel Barnier advocated retirement at 65 and an increase in working hours.
Reciting a classic right-wing mantra, the former minister said he wanted to “encourage those who do not work to do so” and “encourage work and merit, to the detriment of welfare”, notably by suspending unemployment benefits “after two refusals of a reasonable offer”.
He also proposed creating a single social aid to replace current social aid, conditional on the beneficiary being available, in particular, to “carry out activities useful to the community or in business”.
• “Savings” and “debt control”
At the time, Michel Barnier promised a “strict savings trajectory” for the state budget and “debt control”.
To stimulate the “return to work and activity, (…) the key to growth”, he recommended reducing production taxes by 10 billion euros, and lowering social charges on intermediate salaries, from 1.6 to 2.5 times the minimum wage – while planning to increase salaries in the “essential public services of health and education”.
The now new Prime Minister also said he wanted to fight against social fraud, particularly in health insurance, and proposed to do so by replacing all Vitale cards with biometric cards, in order to “save considerable sums” by eliminating a “real nest of fraud”.
• Arm municipal police officers and increase prison places
Since Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, Michel Barnier has regularly criticized the head of state, accusing him in particular of being responsible for the increase, according to him, of insecurity in France. For him, “Emmanuel Macron has deconstructed France”, citing “insecurity, social injustices or territorial fractures” which have “prospered”, he told Le Temps.
Thus, in view of the 2022 presidential election, he called for arming all municipal police forces and for much greater use of drones. He also wanted the creation of at least 20,000 new prison places in five years and a fourfold increase in closed educational centers.
• A very tough program on immigration
During the 2021 right-wing primary, LR candidates were largely unanimous on the idea of limiting immigration. For his part, Michel Barnier proposed “a 3 to 5 year moratorium” on immigration, which would make it possible to “immediately stop regularizations, strictly limit family reunification and reduce the reception of foreign students.”
He also intended to create “an institutional shield” to ensure that the provisions thus taken are not annulled by the European Court of Justice. A proposal that had largely surprised a former European Commissioner and Brexit negotiator.
Michel Barnier called for “the systematic execution of double punishment” for foreign offenders, that is to say, to inflict on them, in addition to the judicial sentence, a measure of exclusion from French territory and the suspension of public development aid when a country does not welcome its expelled nationals.
The Republican also said he was in favor of a wall on the Polish border to “help the Polish government build a solid border.”
• Against the development of wind power
On the subject of the climate crisis, the former European negotiator wanted to set up a carbon tax at European level and put an end to “the anarchic development of wind power which is destroying the landscapes”.
He said he wanted to “relaunch” nuclear power and invest in renewable energies, such as photovoltaics, biomass, hydraulics – but not wind power “which causes a lot of damage”.
“We will reduce agricultural pollution with farmers, not against them. We will decarbonize the economy with businesses, not against them,” said Michel Barnier in 2021, who proposed a “major national plan for housing insulation.”
• Education, a great cause
The former right-wing minister wanted to make National Education the major cause of his five-year term, in particular by splitting primary school classes in all priority education zones (since 2017, CP and then CE1 classes have been split in reinforced priority education zones). Michel Barnier also proposed allowing teachers to be recruited directly by school heads, while aligning the remuneration of teachers, who are “on the front line”, with “the level observed in other major countries”. A proposal also made for health professions.
- BFMTV.com
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