French President Emmanuel Macron has named former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as the country’s new prime minister, after an ill-timed election cost his party control of parliament.
Barnier’s appointment was announced on Wednesday by the Elysee Palace. In a statement, the palace said that Barnier, a member of the center-right Republicans, would ensure “the most stable conditions possible” for France. Barnier replaces Gabriel Attal, a member of Macron’s centrist Renaissance party.
A staunchly pro-EU politician, Barnier held a number of cabinet positions throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and served as the EU’s Internal Market Commissioner between 2010 and 2014. Between 2016 and 2019, he served as head of the bloc’s Brexit task force, overseeing negotiations with the UK during its withdrawal from the union.
Wednesday’s announcement ends two months of political deadlock in France, following a snap election that saw Macron’s party lose dozens of seats along with its status as the largest party in parliament. Only a last-minute “strategic voting” deal with the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) prevented the right-wing National Rally (RN) from winning a majority in the legislature.
However, Macron then blocked the appointment of the NFP’s chosen prime minister, Lucie Castets, arguing that she would threaten “institutional stability.” The RN had already vowed to block any candidate proposed by the left-wing alliance, and Castets would likely have been defeated in a confidence vote had she been appointed by Macron.
RN leader Jordan Bardella said on Wednesday that his party will judge Barnier on his policy speech, as well as his actions in office. “We will plead for the major emergencies facing the French people – purchasing power, security, immigration – to be finally addressed, and we reserve all political means of action if this is not the case in the coming weeks,” Bardella warned in a post on X.
As the third-largest party in parliament, the RN will hold significant power in an upcoming confidence vote on Barnier, which the new premier must survive before assuming office.
Should the right-wing decide to oust Barnier, it is unclear whether they would find any allies on the left. The NFP – a bloc of socialists, communists, and greens – has bitterly condemned Macron’s rejection of Castets for Barnier, with Socialist Party head Olivier Faure describing Barnier’s appointment as “democratic denial at its peak.”
“It is the coalition that comes out on top that is called upon to form a government. Never the party that lost the election,” he wrote on X, warning that “we are entering a regime crisis.”
However, the NFP set aside its ideological disagreements with Macron’s centrists in June when the two sides teamed up to deny an outright majority to the RN.