As France navigates debt, new right-wing PM Barnier to prioritise education, security and immigration control

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - France’s new Prime Minister Michel Barnier gestures before the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, on September 5, 2024. — AFP pic

PARIS, Sept 6 — Francesco Fontemaggi, Valerie Leroux and Stuart Williams France’s new right-wing Prime Minister Michel Barnier promised Thursday to address the grievances of the French but also implement “change” as he took office following almost two months of political deadlock.

President Emmanuel Macron tasked the 73-year-old veteran politician with forming a government earlier in the day, seeking to move forward after July snap elections in which his centrist alliance lost its relative majority in parliament.

Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator and an ex-foreign minister, is the oldest premier in the history of modern France.

He takes over from 35-year-old Gabriel Attal, a man less than half his age who served only eight months in office during a period of political turbulence unprecedented in recent times in France.

At a handover ceremony, Barnier said the priorities of his government would include “responding, as much as we can, to the challenges, to the angers, to the suffering” of French people.

He said that education, security and “immigration control” would remain at the top of the agenda, and that he would be unafraid to speak the truth on tough issues such as the country’s “financial debt”.

But “there will also be change”, said the member of the right-wing Republicans (LR) party who is not affiliated with the president’s centrist faction.

A left-wing coalition emerged as France’s biggest political force after the elections earlier this summer, but without enough seats for an overall majority in an imbroglio that has taken weeks to unravel.

Macron’s centrist faction and the far right make up the two other major groups in the National Assembly, with the RN as the single largest party.

The left has greeted Macron’s move towards “cohabitation” with Barnier with dismay, and will now seek to topple him with a no-confidence motion.

Controversially, the president appears to be counting on the far-right National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen to keep Barnier in power by voting against such a motion.

‘Macron-compatible’

Barnier has been all but invisible in French political life since failing to win his party’s nomination to challenge Macron for the presidency in 2022, during a campaign where he tacked further right and suggested a moratorium on immigration.

The former foreign minister and EU commissioner is “Macron-compatible” and would not be immediately voted out by parliament, an advisor to the president told AFP, asking not to be named.

A minister in the outgoing government, who also asked for anonymity, said he was “very popular with right-wing members of parliament without being an irritant on the left”.

The RN indicated it would not automatically vote down Barnier and would wait and see what programme he lays out in his first address to parliament.

“We will wait to see Mr Barnier’s policy speech,” Le Pen said.

Macron’s predecessor Francois Hollande said he believed the RN had “given a kind of endorsement” to Barnier’s appointment.

As well as two stints as an EU commissioner and handling the thorny negotiations on Britain’s exit from the bloc, Barnier served as a minister under the right-wing administrations of presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed his nomination, saying she knew Barnier had “the interests of Europe and France at heart”.

With a half-century career behind him, Barnier, who proudly extols his origins in the French Alps rather than Paris, first become a member of parliament when he was just 27.

Opponents noted that as a youthful conservative lawmaker, he voted against the decriminalisation of homosexuality in 1981.

The composition of the new cabinet, set to be announced in the coming days, will be closely watched for signs of concessions to Macron’s political foes.

‘Tough’ task

Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose France Unbowed party (LFI) and allies belong to a left-wing bloc, said Macron’s naming of Barnier meant the election had been “stolen from the French”.

Macron’s decision comes under the gun of a deadline to submit a draft 2025 budget for France’s strained government finances before October 1.

Barnier’s “task looks tough, but difficulty has never scared him”, said former prime minister Edouard Philippe, who announced earlier this week that he would seek to succeed Macron in 2027 presidential elections.

After the July elections, Macron drew out the appointment of a new prime minister for a period unprecedented since World War II, through the July-August Olympic Games and beyond. — AFP