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Michel Barnier appointed to Matignon to form “a unifying government”
Emmanuel Macron appointed former right-wing minister and European Commissioner Michel Barnier as Prime Minister on Thursday, 60 days after the second round of legislative elections that resulted in a National Assembly without a majority, sparking the ire of the left but a more wait-and-see reaction from the National Rally. At 73, Michel Barnier, from the Republicans (LR), becomes the oldest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic, succeeding the youngest Gabriel Attal, 35, who was only appointed in January and had resigned for 51 days. The new Prime Minister, who will be supported by the presidential camp and the LR, but without a majority, will have to try to form a government capable of surviving a parliamentary censure, to end the most serious political crisis since 1958. The president “has tasked him with forming a unifying government in the service of the country and the French people,” the Elysée said in a statement. Emmanuel Macron “has ensured that the Prime Minister and the future government would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the chance to unite as broadly as possible,” the presidency added. In the meantime, the resigning ministers will remain in office to continue to manage current affairs during the negotiations. Before opting for Michel Barnier, the head of state, who wanted to avoid as much as possible the risk of immediate censure, had exhausted several other cartridges, from Bernard Cazeneuve on the left to Xavier Bertrand on the right, via the president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council Thierry Beaudet for civil society. The new Prime Minister, who was also an unsuccessful candidate in the primary of the Les Républicains party for the 2022 presidential election, inherits a task that looks like an impossible mission, as no viable coalition has emerged so far and the various actors are lying in wait. He should gather 235 seats with the central bloc (166 seats), the LR (47) and the group Liot (Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories, 22), far from the absolute majority (289), the only lightning rod against censorship. Opposite, the RN and its allies line up 142 seats and the New Popular Front (NFP) 193 seats. – “Regime crisis” – A veteran of politics, Michel Barnier is known as a good mediator: he was the chief negotiator of the European Union for Brexit when the United Kingdom left the continental bloc. Before that, he was a minister on several occasions since 1993, notably under the presidencies of Jacques Chirac (Foreign and European Affairs) and Nicolas Sarkozy (Agriculture). More recently, when he was eyeing the Elysée, this centrist Gaullist had toughened his discourse on immigration, advocating for a “moratorium” and going, as a convinced European, as far as calling into question the European Court of Justice in the name of “legal sovereignty”. But he is expected from all sides, with the permanent risk of a motion of censure which led to the ousting of another LR figure, Xavier Bertrand, whose nomination seemed a given on Wednesday. On the left, where censorship is already being promised, the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon immediately denounced an “election stolen from the French”, assuring that Michel Barnier had been appointed “with the permission and perhaps on the suggestion of the National Rally” and calling for the “most powerful mobilization possible” on Saturday during an anti-Macron demonstration. The RN has “given a form of approval” to the appointment of Barnier, François Hollande grumbled in the same vein. The leader of the socialists Olivier Faure cried out about “the crisis of the regime” and “democratic denial taken to its peak” with “a Prime Minister from the party who came in 4th position and who did not even participate in the Republican front”. The RN, which can bring down the future government at any time with the NFP, remained more circumspect for its part. He will “judge his general policy speech on its merits,” declared the party’s president, Jordan Bardella. LR leader Laurent Wauquiez judged for his part that Michel Barnier had “all the assets to succeed in this difficult mission entrusted to him.” Renaissance, Emmanuel Macron’s party, promised to make “substantive demands, without a blank check” but will not vote for “automatic censure,” with Edouard Philippe (Horizons) assuring for his part “there will be many of us to help him.” – “Clone” – As for this “smell of cohabitation” that Emmanuel Macron’s entourage was looking for to embody a form of alternation, it is not with Michel Barnier that it should be the most intoxicating. He came from a pro-European right wing that was considered “pragmatic”, and he was often considered “Macron-compatible”. The head of state “was looking for a clone, he ended up finding him”, joked the communist Ian Brossat on BFMTV, who sees in this choice “the promise of absolute continuity”. In recent days, several sources, even among his supporters, detected in the president a reluctance to really turn towards the centre-left, for fear of seeing his economic record “unravelled”. “He is very popular with right-wing MPs without it being an irritant on the left”, enthuses a resigning minister from the right wing of Macronie about Mr Barnier. “We have to learn to deal with it,” tempers a centrist leader, with much less enthusiasm. Many Macronists also believe that Michel Barnier is the lowest common denominator and that, given his age, he should not scare off all those who dream of running for the Elysée in 2027. “I am at the stage where I think that the absolute emergency for the president is that he appoints someone. I am no longer even at the stage of giving an opinion,” said a confidant of Emmanuel Macron just before the official announcement.fff-vl/jmt/vk
