Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier appointed next French PM

Michel Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, was appointed as France’s prime minister on Thursday, breaking a post-election deadlock.

Emmanuel Macron, the French president, asked Mr Barnier to “form a unifying government in the service of the country and the French people”, according to a statement by the Elysée Palace.

Mr Macron was accused of stealing the election from the French Left after installing Mr Barnier.

Mr Barnier, 73, is a veteran member of France’s main conservative party, the Republicans, and has previously campaigned for hard-line migration reforms.

His surprise appointment raised the prospect that Mr Macron had brokered a backroom deal with Marine Le Pen’s hard-Right National Rally (RN) to restore France’s government.

Mr Barnier would need the support of RN MPs in parliament to hold on to power.

France has been in political deadlock since the French president’s snap election resulted in a hung parliament with a Leftist coalition as the largest party.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, a senior figure from the New Popular Front, accused Mr Macron of snatching power away from the grouping, which won 182 seats.

“It is not the New Popular Front, which came at the top of the [legislative] election, which will have the prime minister and the responsibility of running before the MPs,” Mr Mélenchon said. “The election was therefore stolen from the French.”

Mr Melanchon called for street protests on Saturday to oppose the appointment of Mr Barnier.

Olivier Faure, the Socialist party leader, also rejected the nomination, saying: “The denial of democracy has reached its peak. A prime minister from a party which arrived in fourth place in the parliamentary elections.”

Boris Vallaud, the Socialists’ parliamentary leader, added: “We will vote no confidence in any choice that does not reflect the outcome of the election.”

Mr Macron was under significant pressure to nominate a prime minister two months on from the second round of the legislative elections on July 7.

His decision was taken before a looming deadline for the start of discussions over the 2025 budget in parliament next month.

The snap ballot left the parliament divided into three minority blocs.

Mr Macron asked Mr Barnier to “form a unifying government in the service of the country and the French people”, according to a statement by the Elysée Palace.

It was hoped that Mr Barnier would be seen as an acceptable option to both Ms Le Pen’s hard-Right and the more moderate Left-wing parties.

The RN chief said the appointment “seems to meet at least the first criteria we had called for, that is to say a man who is respectful of the different political forces and able to address the National Rally, which is the first group of the National Assembly, in the same way as other groups”.

The appointment of Mr Barnier will come as a shock in France, where he is relatively unknown, despite having left his mark in both London and Brussels as the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator.

The 73 year old becomes the oldest prime minister of France’s Fifth Republic, and succeeds Gabriel Attal, who was appointed only eight months ago as the youngest.

In his last foray into domestic politics, Mr Barnier failed to secure the Republicans’ nomination for the country’s 2022 presidential election.

Valerie Pecresse, the party’s candidate, was eliminated in the first round with less than five per cent of the vote, in a contest that saw Mr Macron re-elected after beating Ms Le Pen.

In the campaign, Mr Barnier proposed a three-to-five-year prohibition on non-EU immigration.

He further raised eyebrows in Brussels, where he is best known, by calling on France to regain its “legal sovereignty” by ignoring judgments from the EU’s Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights.

In a recent interview with The Telegraph, Mr Barnier accused Mr Macron of ignoring French voters’ concerns over immigration, sovereignty and security.

Mr Barnier now faces the challenge of forming a government that will secure the backing of France’s parliament.

The New Popular Front is well short of the 289 seats required to trigger a vote of no-confidence, but Mr Barnier will still need the support of the hard-Right to govern with relative stability.

Mr Macron had refused to appoint a prime minister from the Leftist coalition, arguing his Right-wing opponents would vote it down.

Mr Mélenchon called for mass street protests at the decision, saying Mr Barnier had been installed “with the permission and perhaps at the suggestion of the National Rally”.

Francois Hollande, a former socialist French president, said it was an “almost certainty” the new prime minister had been handed the role because of support from the hard-Right.

“It is because the RN, precisely the extreme Right, has given a form of discharge,” Mr Hollande said. “I think he will have to explain it before the Assembly”.

Despite desperate attempts by Mr Macron to keep her out of power, the appointment of Mr Barnier is an acknowledgement that she will be a powerbroker in order to keep any centrist-conservative coalition in power.