Michel Barnier: Can France's new 'no-nonsense' PM restore order?

As the results were declared, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon took to the stage in front of his jubilant supporters, declaring, "(We) wrested a result that everyone said was impossible in a wonderful leap of civic spirit … The people have avoided the worst," he said.

Blow to far left

The far-left's hopes of dominating the new parliament, though, have now been dashed with Macron's appointment of Barnier as the country's new prime minister, prompting accusations that the French president had brokered a secret deal with the RN in order to form a new government. Critics claim Macron has stolen the election from the Left by installing Barnier.

That was certainly Melenchon's view, a senior figure in the New Popular Front alliance of Leftist parties.

"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."

Nevertheless, Macron will be hoping that, after the political deadlock that followed the snap election result, Barnier will be able to form a functioning government by drawing on a combination of his own right-wing Republicans as well as Le Pen's supporters.

Regarded as a conservative heavyweight among French right-wing Republicans, Barnier will need to draw on his extensive experience working in Brussels, where he served as the European Union's former chief Brexit negotiator and twice as a European commissioner, to achieve his goal.

His appointment certainly prompted a positive response from Le Pen, who said the move "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". Whether he will be seen as an acceptable option for both the hard-right and the Left-wing alliance remains to be seen.

Relatively unknown

Barnier's appointment will come as a shock in many parts of France, where he is relatively unknown despite his role as the EU's chief Brexit negotiator. He now becomes the oldest prime minister since the creation of France's Fifth Republic and succeeds Gabriel Attal, who was appointed only eight months ago as the youngest.

Born at La Tronche in the French Alps to a Gaullist family in 1951, Barnier's father was a leather and textiles craftsman. He is married to Isabelle Altmayer, a lawyer, and the couple have three adult children.

As a young man in 1970s France, Barnier named the former French president and war hero Charles de Gaulle as his political hero. As an emerging young politician, he even voted in favour of Britain joining the EEC, the forerunner of the modern EU, despite the fact that de Gaulle had twice vetoed UK membership of the bloc. 

Barnier served on the staff of various Gaullist ministers in the 1970s before being elected in 1978, aged 27, to the National Assembly as deputy for his home department of Savoie. In 1982, Barnier became the youngest president of the departmental council of Savoie, and in 1992, was given responsibility for helping to organise the Winter Olympics.

He eventually became a Cabinet minister in 1993 before being appointed Minister for European Affairs by former French President Jacques Chirac.

Prior to his surprise appointment as prime minister by Macron, Barnier had entertained presidential ambitions of his own, although he failed to secure the Republicans' nomination for the country's 2022 presidential election.

One of the more notable features of his political campaign was his strong anti-immigration stance, with Barnier proposing a three-to-five-year prohibition on non-EU immigration.

'No-nonsense' approach

Outside France, though, Barnier is mainly known for his no-nonsense approach during the tense Brexit negotiations with the UK, memorably remarking in 2017, "We intend to teach people what leaving the single market means".

While successive British Brexit officials tried to secure a better deal between the UK and EU, Barnier managed to cultivate an air of wearied professorial patience.

He particularly enjoyed his exchanges with Boris Johnson, the leader of the UK's Brexit campaign, taking him to task when the UK's then foreign secretary said the EU could "go whistle" over its Brexit bill demands. Barnier simply replied, "I am not hearing any whistling, just a clock ticking."

Now that he has been appointed prime minister, Barnier's approach is likely to be reflected in comments he made soon after July's snap election when he said on X that "France needs order … order in the streets, at our borders and in the state budget." He also called for "the right and centre to ensure that French people are respected."

Even so, France's new prime minister faces an enormous challenge if he is to unite rival right and left-wing factions, especially as the left believes they have been cheated out of power by his appointment.

As former socialist French President Francois Hollande commented after Barnier's appointment, it was an "almost certainty" the new prime minister had been handed the role because of support from the far 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".

On the plus side, Barnier is likely to have a constructive engagement with Le Pen's RN, not least because his appointment signifies that, however much Macron would like to keep Le Pen out of power, by appointing Barnier he has accepted that her support is vital to sustain any centrist-conservative coalition in power.