The president hopes his choice will end the deadlock that has continued for weeks since the general election and is hopeful that the far-right will not block the appointment.
After more than 50 days of a caretaker government, President Emmanuel Macron has appointed former European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister.
Macron met the 73-year-old veteran politician at the Elysee Palace on Thursday and tasked him with forming a new government to end weeks of political deadlock following surprise parliamentary elections.
Barnier succeeds 35-year-old Gabriel Attal, who served in the position for just eight months.
President Macron’s gamble to call early parliamentary elections in June backfired, with his centrist coalition losing dozens of seats and no party winning an absolute majority.
The left-wing New Popular Front coalition was the first to step in, but other parties quickly rejected it, leading Macron to refuse to ask it to form a government.
Macron’s centrists and the far-right make up the other two largest groups in the National Assembly.
Mr Barnier, a member of the right-wing Republicans (LR) party, has remained largely invisible in French politics since failing to win his party’s nomination to challenge Mr Macron in the 2022 presidential election.
The former foreign minister and European Commissioner now faces the daunting task of passing reforms and a 2025 budget in a hanging parliament at a time when France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its budget deficit.
The appointment follows weeks of hard work by Macron and his aides to find a candidate who could form a loose bloc of supporters in parliament and survive possible attempts by the president’s opponents to block the formation of a new government.
A minister in the outgoing government told AFP news agency that Barnier was “very popular among right-wing MPs without causing any trouble to those on the left”.
Macron appears to be hoping that the far-right Rally National (RN) party of Marine Le Pen, a three-time presidential candidate, will not block Barnier’s appointment.
National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said the decision would be made “on the evidence” when Mr Barnier addressed parliament.
Marine Tondelier, leader of the Green party, fired back: “We know who will ultimately decide: Marine Le Pen. It is she who decided that Macron will submit.”
Left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Macron’s nomination of Barnier meant the election had been “stolen from France.”
