Michel Barnier is the new French PM – so, what now?
After a 'stolen election', Michel Barnier, former EU Brexit negotiator has been appointed as France's new prime minister. What does it mean for France?


“Thousands of angry left-wing protesters” took to the streets in France on Saturday in the “opening salvo” of what “could be weeks or months of demonstrations”, says The Observer. The protesters accused President Emmanuel Macron of a “denial of democracy” when he appointed the former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as prime minister, despite the fact that the left won the most seats in the recent elections and Barnier’s party won fewer than 50 MPs.
The decision followed a two-month search for a PM, during which Macron ruled out the left’s preferred candidate (civil servant Lucie Castets) on the grounds that “she would be unable to muster enough cross-party support to form a stable government”.
Macron has pulled "a blinder"
The “absolute rage” being voiced by the French left suggests that Macron has “pulled a real blinder”, says The Telegraph. Barnier may be a “bit boring”, but unlike the alternatives, he won’t be immediately thrown out by a vote of no-confidence in France’s “new, unworkable parliament, with its three blocs of irreconcilable MPs”. Not having been seen on the “frankly unedifying” national political scene in recent years “is also an asset”, as is the fact that he ran for president two years ago on a “strong anti-unchecked immigration platform”. The selection of Barnier means that Macron has chosen “stability” over “revolutionary posturing”.
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While the far left is raging at what it sees as an “unacceptable coup de force”, the far right’s Marine Le Pen “has perhaps never been more powerful”, says Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator. She reportedly vetoed Macron’s two original choices, former Socialist PM Bernard Cazeneuve and centrist Xavier Bertrand, instead insisting on someone “respectful of the different political forces” and capable of talking to Le Pen’s party, the National Rally. The fact that Barnier’s centrist government needs the support of her 143 MPs to survive the inevitable challenge from the left “will give her bargaining power in parliament”.
What's next for France?
The left could have prevented this state of affairs if it had been willing to compromise by joining Macron’s own bloc in a “broadly centrist coalition”, says Lee Hockstader in The Washington Post.
It’s hard to dispute there is something “Faustian” about Macron’s pact, especially as Le Pen has said that she will hold the government hostage to her party’s “hard-line agenda”, especially on immigration. Le Pen’s status as a “kingmaker” also gives her “respectability”, as well as putting a “yawning breach” in the “firewall” that mainstream parties had built to keep her out of power.
Barnier’s selection “closes one tense and heated chapter” but “opens another, which could be even more testing”, especially given the “pressing need for France to get its public finances in order”, says The Economist. The new PM “will have his work cut out” as he tries to appoint ministers, make the necessary budget cuts, appease the left and keep the hard right quiet, as well as calm the streets. He will also have to do all of this while dealing with Macron’s “irrepressible tendency to interfere in all decision-making”.
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Matthew graduated from the University of Durham in 2004; he then gained an MSc, followed by a PhD at the London School of Economics.
He has previously written for a wide range of publications, including the Guardian and the Economist, and also helped to run a newsletter on terrorism. He has spent time at Lehman Brothers, Citigroup and the consultancy Lombard Street Research.
Matthew is the author of Superinvestors: Lessons from the greatest investors in history, published by Harriman House, which has been translated into several languages. His second book, Investing Explained: The Accessible Guide to Building an Investment Portfolio, is published by Kogan Page.
As senior writer, he writes the shares and politics & economics pages, as well as weekly Blowing It and Great Frauds in History columns He also writes a fortnightly reviews page and trading tips, as well as regular cover stories and multi-page investment focus features.
Follow Matthew on Twitter: @DrMatthewPartri
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