“The Tough Negotiator Becomes Prime Minister” | EUROtoday

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He is a person of the best, Michel Barnier. Consciously, proudly a member of that French proper that doesn’t exist elsewhere: republican, and never merely Gaullist, and happy with its origins, the Revolution (“Liberté, egalité, fraternité”, to simplify), with which conservatives in different international locations haven’t but totally come to phrases (it’s somewhat '68 that’s the bête noire of the present Républicains…)

There just isn’t a lot left of the Gaullists as we speak, even when on the native stage they’re nonetheless in a position to accumulate, on a nationwide common, about 28% of the votes. Barnier had run to reunite them however his outcomes have been restricted: the third place within the primaries for the 2022 presidential elections was one of many few, maybe the one, electoral defeats in an extended sequence of native elections – he comes from Savoy – and nationwide ones. Not everybody forgives him for his satisfied Europeanism (even when Ursula von der Leyen appears to love him little): he was a member of the Amato Group, the Action Committee for European Democracy, led by Giuliano Amato, delegate to draft the Treaty of Lisbon.

He is a person thought of “difficult” – when essential, a minimum of – by those that have recognized him (he calls himself “a mountaineer”), however “at the same time” – an expression expensive to President Emmanuel Macron – very able to constructing relationships and dialoguing with everybody. On paper, he has essential assist not solely inside his get together, the Droite Républicaine, but additionally amongst Macronians (particularly, evidently, these of Gaullist extraction) and the unbiased heart of Liot. There isn’t any lack of expressions of esteem from part of the socialists – the interior opposition, as we speak stronger – from ecologists and even from the followers of Eric Ciotti, a Gaullist defector (however nonetheless president of the get together) in the direction of the lepenists. Even the Rassemblement nationwide most popular to attend to know his political venture, earlier than expressing itself on a doable “non-censorship”.

The Tough Brexit Negotiator

“I am not restless” is his favorite phrase. He is a really robust negotiator: the British, very confused about what to do, know one thing about it, having had him as a counterpart in the course of the Brexit negotiations. At 73 – he’s the oldest prime minister of the Fifth Republic, whereas Gabriel Attal was the youngest – he can boast an extended and really various profession. Departmental advisor for Savoy at 21, at 27 he turned a deputy. In the Nineteen Nineties he was elected senator as a consultant of his division and in 2009 he was a member of the European Parliament. He has been minister a number of occasions: for the atmosphere (1993-95), for European Affairs (95-97, with out portfolio), for Foreign Affairs with Jacques Chirac as president (2004-5), for Agriculture (2007-2009). He was twice European Commissioner: from 1999 to 2004 for Regional Affairs, with Romano Prodi, and from 2010 to 2014 for Internal Market, with José Barroso. He then adopted the Brexit negotiations and the implementation of the treaties from 2016 to 2021.

His nomination didn’t come out of nowhere. Barnier performed his playing cards very nicely, and his title got here up only a few occasions in the course of the lengthy consultations. He made his availability recognized – the French newspapers clarify – by Alexis Kohler, secretary normal of the Elysée, and never straight with Macron, informing the “tenors” of his get together: Nicolas Sarkozy, Laurent Wauquiez and Gérald Larcher, president of the Senate and till Wednesday among the many candidates to take Attal's place. His entourage did the identical, particularly after the concept of ​​nominating Thierry Beaudet, president of the EESC (the French CNEL), emerged. Furthermore, he’s not destined to “disturb” the private ambitions of politicians: in 2027, the yr of the presidential elections, he will probably be 76 years previous and isn’t a really charismatic character, extra comfy with dossiers than with electoral debates.