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After two months of uncertainty, Emmanuel Macron has appointed the new head of government. A veteran of the French right, crowned with his status as representative of the European Union during the Brexit agreements, the Savoyard is returning to the forefront.
He has often been the youngest. General councilor at 22, youngest member of the National Assembly in 1978 – Emmanuel Macron was 4 months old when he won a seat –, president of the departmental council of Savoie barely after 30… At 73, Michel Barnier beats another record, that of Pierre Bérégovoy, appointed Prime Minister of François Mitterrand at 66, in 1992. The new tenant of Matignon, appointed this Thursday, September 5 by Emmanuel Macron, is twice the age of his predecessor, Gabriel Attal, youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic at 34. “Youth is a defect that we correct more and more every day,” he replied in 2021, quoting Raymond Poincaré, when malicious tongues mentioned his age in relation to his competitors in the presidential primary of the Les Républicains party.
Fifty-eight days after the second round of early legislative elections and eight weeks after the resignation of Gabriel Attal, the President put an end to the power vacuum by giving a chance to the former negotiator of the European Union for Brexit, between 2016 and 2021. The end of an interminable saga, which will have seen its share of contenders virtually approach Matignon, from the former socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve to the LR boss of Hauts-de-France,
