Michel Barnier has not closed the door to politics. To make it clear, the former Prime Minister even broke his silence on Tuesday. On this occasion, he promised to devote himself to “bringing to life the spirit” of the common base, which brought together the right and the center when he was at Matignon.
“This spirit must absolutely be kept alive,” he declared in front of more than 300 people who welcomed him standing to the rhythm of I’m still standing by Elton John, during the greetings of the LR federation of Yvelines in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. “I will devote myself to it,” he promised, recalling that his government had brought together “different political sensibilities”, from his Republican family, through “Horizons, the Macronists and the centrists of the MoDem”.
Retailleau described as “great minister”
While emphasizing that his presence “was not a meeting”, Michel Barnier expressed his “pride” in having been Prime Minister, during his first public outing since the censorship, voted by the RN and the left, which brought down his government on December 5 after only three months.
Invited by the president of the LR federation of Yvelines, Othman Nasrou, who was part of his government, the former tenant of Matignon took the liberty of quoting a single member of the current team, that of Bruno Retailleau whom he described him as a “great minister” (of the Interior). He nevertheless warned the numerous journalists present that he did not “intend to multiply the little sentences […]to put spokes in the wheels” of his successor.
-The “conjunction of opposites” criticized
“I have no nostalgia” for the three months spent in Matignon, assured Michel Barnier, describing this period as “singular” and attributing its fall to a “conjunction of opposites” between the extreme right and the left who voted together its censorship. On the other hand, he only allowed himself one reference to the current debate in Parliament on the budget, at the origin of his censorship, to note that “the demand to reduce the debt” was still there.
Our Politics file
Returning to the inauguration the day before of Donald Trump in the United States, he called on Europeans for unity. “Let's stay calm, let's keep our cool, let's defend our interests,” he said, stressing that “no one is going to defend” the EU in place of the Europeans.
Related News :