Macron names former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new PM

President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday named former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister, reported AP.
Barnier has been tasked with forming “a unifying government in the service of the country”, the presidency added.
The former Brexit negotiator who is 73-years-old, becomes the oldest premier in the history of modern France.
Barnier negotiated EU’s talks with Britain over its exit from the union from 2016 to 2021. Before that, the conservative politician was the EU Commissioner and was in charge of various roles in French governments.
 
Macron considered many leaders as potential prime ministers but nobody had enough support for a stable government. There is no guarantee that the new government will manage to get reforms adopted by a hung parliament, according to a report by Reuters.
However, National Rally (RN), the far-right party, which is one of the biggest in parliament after the July elections, signalled that it would not immediately reject Barnier, if he met certain conditions, the report said.
 
Barnier is considered to be pro-European and a moderate career politician. He later changed his discourse considerably
during his failed attempt in 2021 to get the conservative party’s ticket for the presidential election, saying immigration was out of control, the National Rally’s point of view.

In June, Macron’s attempt to conduct a snap parliamentary election backfired, as his coalition lost many seats and none of the parties won an absolute majority.
Macron waited many weeks to make his choice, as the left’s New Popular Alliance could not form the government either.
According to the report, Macron was not planning to conduct another snap election until next July despite not having a clear majority in the June elections.

National Rally will wait to what Barnier would say on immigration and on changing France’s voting system, the report quoted RN lawmaker Sebastien Chenu’s statement from BFM TV
The report also quoted lawmaker Laurent Jacobelli, from the National Rally, who said a condition was that parliament be dissolved as soon as possible.
“The RN wants a prime minister who is committed to dissolving as soon as possible and establishing proportional representation (for parliamentary elections),” he said.
However, the RN was not very enthusiastic about Barnier’s tenure, the report added.