Macron appoints France’s new PM

French President Emmanuel Macron has tapped former chief Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s next prime minister, the Elysée said in a statement on Thursday, ending a nearly two-month-long search that paralyzed the government.

Barnier served four times as a cabinet minister and twice as a European commissioner before becoming the head of the Brexit task force in 2016. A conservative figure from the Les Républicains party, he is a familiar face in Brussels but less known at home.

“This nomination comes after an unprecedented cycle of consultations, and in view of his constitutional duty, the president made sure that the prime minister and its government will have the most stable conditions possible,” the Elysée Palace said in a written statement.

Barnier will now begin the arduous task of forming a government that won’t be immediately collapsed by a deeply divided French legislature. Snap elections this summer delivered a hung parliament, with the pan-left New Popular Front securing the most seats but falling short of an absolute majority.

Macron refused to appoint the alliance’s candidate for prime minister, 37-year-old civil servant Lucie Castets, arguing that she was not in a position to govern with stability.

The veteran conservative figure was the latest name to surface in whirlwind negotiations this week. Former premier Bernard Cazeneuve, top civil servant Thierry Beaudet and conservative heavyweight Xavier Bertrand were all briefly rumored to be in the running for the job before being waved aside.

Pressure was building on the French president to break the deadlock with the French returning to work on Monday after the traditional summer break and ahead of a looming deadline for the start of the 2025 budget talks in parliament next month.

Barnier emerged as front-runner on late Wednesday, just hours before his official nomination. As first reported by Playbook Paris, Barnier was in talks with Macron at the Elysée Palace late that day, according to three persons with knowledge of talks who, like others quoted in this story, were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.

It quickly became clear that the ex-Brexit negotiator ticked all of Macron’s boxes. As a conservative grandee, he had the support of Les Républicains, but, at 73 years old, he would not rival younger allies with presidential ambitions.

Crucially, the far-right National Rally might abstain from trying to immediately vote him out. That would give Barnier some margin to maneuver but also propel Marine Le Pen’s party as the kingmakers of any future government.

MNA/PR