FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has appointed top EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as his next Prime Minister.
After weeks of talks right-wing technocrat Barnier, 73, who led the EU’s talks with Britain over its exit from the Union was selected for the job.
AFPFrench president Emmanuel Macron with Michel Barnier[/caption]
Macron had considered a string of potential candidates in recent weeks, none of which mustered enough support to guarantee a stable government.
Although there is no guarantee Barnier’s government will manage to get reforms adopted by a hung parliament.
France’s government was rocked by an inconclusive and turbulent snap election in July.
It sparked almost two-months of a political stalemate where no majority party was carved out to lead the country’s National Assembly.
Macron ultimately landed on Barnier, a highly experienced technocrat who is not a serving elected MP.
An official at Matignon, the Prime Minister’s official residence in Paris, said on Thursday afternoon: “Michel Barnier has been named prime minister by President Macron.”
It means he will become the oldest prime minister in the history of the 5th Republic.
And he will be taking over from the youngest PM, Gabriel Attal, who is 35.
Barnier immediately faces the possibility of a no-confidence vote in parliament, because of his apparent lack of democratic legitimacy.
He was last in parliament in 1993, and is currently a member of The Republicans (LR) party – the current name for the Gaullist conservatives, part of the opposition.
Pressure has been mounting for Macron to appoint a new PM after a coalition led by his Renaissance party came second in July’s snap election.
It was won by the Popular Front – a Leftist coalition specifically aimed at keeping the far-Right National Rally party from gaining power.
Barnier did not emerge as a serious candidate to run a new French government until Thursday, when he was seen at the Elysee Palace.
He tried to become LR’s presidential candidate in 2022, but was eliminated in the first round of party voting with less than 5% of the vote.
During the campaign, he took a hard line on immigration, saying it was “out of control”.
On Thursday, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a National Rally MP, said Mr Barnier represented the “fossilised old world”, accusing the Élysée Palace of “going down the Jurassic Park”.