Michel Barnier: Who is the “Mr Brexit” appointed by President Macron as Prime Minister?

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday tasked Michel Barnier with forming the next French government, nearly two months after early legislative elections whose results were inconclusive.

Barnier, 73, is the EU’s former Brexit negotiator and is known in France as “Mr Brexit”.

Barnier is the oldest prime minister in modern French history, since the emergence of the Fifth Republic in 1958, and succeeds the current prime minister, Gabriel Attal, who is nearly 40 years younger than him, at 35, and whose term lasted only eight months.

Barnier is a veteran politician in the right-wing Republicans party, and has a long political career spanning nearly forty years, during which he held various senior positions, both in France and within the European Union.

He has held various ministerial positions in France, including as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Environment, as well as twice serving as European Commissioner and advisor to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. In 2021, Barnier announced his candidacy for the French presidential elections but failed to garner sufficient support within his party.

Barnier will now have to form a government that can last, with a National Assembly divided into three large political blocs, none of which can form a clear majority.

The appointment of the politician from the right-wing Republicans party, who is not affiliated with Macron’s centrist party, was met with dismay on the left, which may seek to oust him in a confidence vote in the National Assembly.

In France, the President of the Republic appoints the Prime Minister, before a vote of confidence in the National Assembly. The recent elections produced a National Assembly divided between three blocs, none of which has an outright majority.

An adviser to the French president told AFP, requesting anonymity, that Barnier “is compatible with Macron, and has a chance of winning the support of parliament.”

Barnier has been out of French politics since failing to secure the support of his Les Républicains party to challenge Macron in the 2022 presidential election, in a campaign in which he moved further to the right and proposed a halt to immigration.

The Elysee Palace said that by appointing Mr Barnier, Macron had ensured that the prime minister and the future government would offer the greatest possible stability, adding that Mr Barnier was tasked with forming a unified government “at the service of the country and the French people”.

Mr Barnier’s immediate challenge will be to draft France’s 2025 budget, and he has until October 1 to present a draft budget plan to the National Assembly.