POLITICS – The contrast is striking. The youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic has handed over the keys to Matignon to the oldest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic. Thirty-eight years separate Gabriel Attal and Michel Barnier, side by side this Thursday, September 5 for the traditional transfer of power. Under the eye of microphones and cameras, after about thirty minutes of closed-door interviews, the two men stepped onto the red carpet set up for the occasion.
Michel Barnier, Prime Minister, Lucie Castets sees this as a decision “that goes against institutional logic”
“We have known each other for several years, Gabriel Attal immediately announced. The French know that you are a great local elected official, you know our territories. Someone who has successfully completed negotiations as tough as those of Brexit must necessarily know how to maneuver in the French political landscape.
Michel Barnier’s speech was inevitably more anticipated. It was his first statement after his nomination, revealed by the Élysée at midday. “We are in a serious moment, I approach this new page which is opening with great humility”he revealed. The former minister of Édouard Philippe and Jacques Chirac promised “changes and ruptures” : “It will be a question of responding as much as we can to the challenges, the anger, the suffering, the feeling of abandonment, of injustice which run through our cities and our countryside far too much.”.
Michel Barnier also outlined the first projects he intends to tackle: “School will of course remain the government’s priority, as will access to public services, security, control of immigration, work and the standard of living of the French.”. Promising “respect, unity and appeasement”the new Prime Minister assured that he was the one who “will tell the truth”notably “on the financial and ecological debt that weighs heavily on the shoulders of our children”. Before slipping, like an old wild animal who has lived through nearly fifty years of political life: “I approach this period with the wisdom that white hair gives”.
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Michel Barnier, Prime Minister, Lucie Castets sees this as a decision “that goes against institutional logic”
