President Emmanuel Macron ended the suspense on Thursday, September 5, by tasking Michel Barnier, from the Republicans, with forming a new government. ELLE lists four things to know about the new Prime Minister.
1. A political veteran
Michel Barnier is a veteran of French politics. The man, now 73, began his long political career… in 1973 as departmental councilor of Savoie, a position he held until 1993. He then served several terms, successively becoming a deputy and senator, but also a minister under several presidents of the Republic. The one nicknamed “the mountaineer” was both president of the general council of Savoie for seventeen years and minister under three presidents of the Republic. In addition, he experienced cohabitation under François Mitterrand within the Balladur government in which he held the Ministry of the Environment, then he took care of European Affairs, Foreign Affairs and Agriculture. Then, during the mandates of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. In private, Chirac nicknamed him “the ski instructor”, in reference to his long-standing friendship with Jean-Claude Killy, whose photo never left his office at the European Commission, and with whom he had launched Albertville’s bid for the 1992 Winter Olympics, which shows to what extent Michel Barnier belongs to another world… This very long political career also earned him some criticism from his adversaries who did not fail to point out his ability to “talk incessantly…
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