Michel Barnier, the EU\u2019s former chief Brexit negotiator, has been named France\u2019s new prime minister, the French president\u2019s office says, ending two months of stalemate following inconclusive parliamentary elections. <\/p>\n
In a statement on Thursday, the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace said: \u201cThe President of the Republic has appointed Michel Barnier as Prime Minister. He has to form a united government to serve the country and the French people.\u201d <\/p>\n
The statement added that Barnier\u2019s appointment comes after \u201can unprecedented cycle of consultations\u201d in order to ensure a stable government. <\/p>\n
Barnier, 73, a staunch Europhile, is a member of the Republicans party which represents the traditional right. He is best known on the international stage for his role in mediating the United Kingdom\u2019s exit from the European Union. <\/p>\n
A 40-year veteran of French and European politics, Barnier has held various ministerial positions in France, including roles as foreign, agriculture and environment ministers. He served twice as a European commissioner as well as an adviser to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. In 2021, Barnier announced his bid for presidential elections but failed to garner enough support within his party. <\/p>\n
Macron accepted the resignation of former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his government in July, after his centrist Ensemble alliance was defeated in the second round of France\u2019s snap parliamentary election. The president has since faced calls from across the political divide to name a new PM. Last week, Macron told journalists during a trip to Serbia he was \u201cmaking all the necessary efforts\u201d to finalize a name. <\/p>\n
Barnier\u2019s prospects for forming a stable government are unclear. Currently, France\u2019s far-right National Rally (RN) is one of the largest parties in parliament following the election in early July. It has previously suggested it could be open to working with Barnier and would not immediately veto him. <\/p>\n
Still, RN politician Laurent Jacobelli spoke disparagingly of Barnier, telling French television network TF1: \u201cThey are taking out of mothballs those who have governed France for 40 years.\u201d <\/p>\n
Barnier served as the chief negotiator during the UK\u2019s exit from the European Union. The lengthy talks between London and Brussels ran from 2016 to 2021 and he is known among Brexiteers in the UK for driving a hard bargain. <\/p>\n
Born in January 1951 in a suburb of the Alpine city of Grenoble, Barnier was first elected to parliament at the age of 27. <\/p>\n
This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Michel Barnier, the EU\u2019s former chief Brexit negotiator, has been named France\u2019s new prime minister,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7563\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailywashingtoninsider.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}