French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday appointed former minister and European Commissioner Michel Barnier, a member of the conservative political family, as his new prime minister, following a succession of rounds of consultations marked by a lack of consensus.
In a statement, the Elysée Palace acknowledged that it had been “an unprecedented round of consultations” during which Macron, in the name of his “constitutional duty”, had tried to find a candidate and a government that could unite the greatest possible number of supporters in Parliament.
Barnier is now called upon to form “a government of unity at the service of the country and the French people”, which opens the door to the inclusion of members of diverse origins. Not in vain, no political bloc has a majority in the National Assembly, marked by polarisation following the parliamentary elections in July.
Michel Barnier, new Prime Minister of France
At 73, Barnier becomes the oldest prime minister of the French Fifth Republic and happens to succeed the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who took office at the beginning of 2024 at the age of 34.
A conservative profile
Barnier takes on the challenge after a period away from the front line, although in 2022 he launched a candidacy to try to reach the Presidency, where he expressed particularly tough positions on immigration policy. Before that, he had been responsible for negotiating Brexit on behalf of the European Commission, after a political career in France in which he had been part of the governments of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.
With his appointment, Macron has opted for a candidate with a clearly conservative profile, after having made it clear during the first round of contacts that he would not choose anyone from the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) despite the electoral victory of this bloc. The president claimed that a person from this camp would be immediately rejected by the Assembly.
In recent days, other names have been floated, such as former Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and conservative regional leader Xavier Bertrand, but none of them have yet come to fruition. According to French public television, Barnier’s appointment was finalised at a dinner on Wednesday with Macron that ended shortly before five o’clock on Thursday morning.
