Macron names EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister

New French prime minister Michel Barnier delivers a speech during the handover ceremony, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024 in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron has named EU’s Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister after more than 50 days of caretaker government. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

PARIS (AP) — President Emmanuel Macron named Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister on Thursday, hoping the Brexit negotiator and veteran conservative can work with the country’s bitterly divided legislature to end political turmoil that has roiled Macron’s presidency.

Barnier, 73, is the oldest of the 26 prime ministers that have served modern France’s Fifth Republic. He replaces the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who was 34 when he was appointed just eight months ago.

Attal was also France’s first openly gay prime minister. French media and some of Macron’s political opponents, who immediately criticized Barnier’s appointment, quickly dug up that, when serving in parliament in 1981, the new prime minister had been among 155 lawmakers who voted against a law that decriminalized homosexuality.

Barnier’s appointment ends more than 50 days of a caretaker government in France but offers no guarantee of a return to political calm. Barnier faces the tough task of having to work with the acrimonious and deeply split hung parliament that emerged from an early legislative election that Macron called in June.

At a handover ceremony with Attal, Barnier said that his new role would require “lots of listening, lots of respect.”

Without a legislative majority of his own behind him, Barnier will need to find loose ad hoc groupings of backers in the National Assembly to tackle France’s pressing issues — including the budget for 2025. Macron and his aides spent weeks sounding out potential prime ministerial candidates, making calls and trying to build consensus, in the search for a government leader who might be able to survive in the fractured political landscape.

Barnier, a career politician proud of his humble roots in France’s Alpine region of Haute-Savoie, is no stranger to complex and daunting tasks: He was the European Union’s chief negotiator in the difficult talks with Britain over its departure from the bloc.

But he could quickly face possible attempts in parliament to topple the new government he will put together and lead. Opponents of Macron on the left of French politics immediately portrayed the appointment of the conservative Barnier as a slap in the face for those who voted for them in the legislative election. Macron hoped the voting would strengthen his position and provide clarity. Instead, the July 7 outcome saw his centrist government lose its majority but also produced no clear winner.

By turning to Barnier, Macron is hoping to break the political deadlock.

A statement from Macron’s office announcing the appointment said Barnier was tasked “with forming a unifying government to serve the country and the French people.”

“This appointment comes after an unprecedented cycle of consultations during which, in accordance with his constitutional duty, the president ensured that the prime minister and the future government would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the chances of uniting as broadly as possible,” the statement said.

Forming a government that isn’t quickly toppled by a parliamentary censure vote is sure to be a delicate tightrope act with a legislature so divided. To build the support his government will need, Barnier could possibly offer ministerial posts to potential allies.

“He will seek to build a government of national union, casting a wide net,” said Christophe Boutin, a political analyst at the University of Caen Normandie,

But Barnier will also have to make do “without the extremes,” Boutin added, referring to Macron’s fiercest opponents on the far-left and far-right of French politics that have considerable sway but no majority in the legislature.

Barnier brings ample experience and networks of contacts from his political career of more than 50 years. He has served as ministers for foreign and European affairs as well as the environment and agriculture — and twice as a European commissioner.

But his profile could also leave Macron open to opponents’ accusations that the president is not effecting the deep change that some voters hoped for from the legislative elections.

“Taking all this time to end up with Barnier, it doesn’t give the impression of a major revolution,” Boutin said. “Barnier has been in the political landscape for centuries.”

So political instability wouldn’t overshadow the July 26-Aug. 11 Paris Olympics, when France was in the global spotlight, Macron had kept Attal and his ministers on in a caretaker capacity, handling day-to-day affairs, after the prime minister resigned July 16, in the wake of the legislative defeat.

Influential far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon on Thursday immediately came out against Barnier’s appointment and predicted the prime minister would not get majority backing from lawmakers.

Melenchon said the appointment flew in the face of the election results that left parliament’s lower house split between three main blocs — the left, including Melenchon’s party; the center where Macron has based his support, and the far right, converging around anti-immigration leader Marine Le Pen.

“The election has been stolen,” Melenchon asserted.

Le Pen, on the other hand, indicated that she’s willing to give Barnier a chance but said her National Rally party won’t take part in his government.

She said the 2025 budget will be a priority. Barnier’s government faces a tight deadline to deliver one. France is also under pressure from the EU to get its finances in order, with Brussels having rebuked Paris for running up excessive debt.

Barnier is “a man respectful of other political forces,” Le Pen said. “It’s important because compromises will have to be reached, considering the state of France’s budget.”