Getty PicturesFrance’s new prime minister has had a protracted profession in politics, however Michel Barnier is finest identified even in his native France because the EU’s chief negotiator within the Brexit years. His job was to characterize the European Union throughout talks with the UK authorities.
Born within the mountainous Savoie area in south-east France in 1951, Mr Barnier – a eager skier and hiker – has been a dedicated, patriotic conservative within the custom of French chief Charles de Gaulle since he was an adolescent.
He joined the right-wing Union for the Defence of the Republic (UDR) occasion when he was an adolescent. To this present day, he nonetheless belongs to the UDR’s successor, the Republicans (LR).
Mr Barnier didn’t attend the elite French École Nationale d’Administration, from which most of the nation’s leaders hail – however did make historical past when, aged 27, he grew to become the youngest MP ever elected.
He married Isabelle Altmayer, a lawyer, in 1982. The couple have three grown youngsters and he or she was within the courtyard of the prime minister’s residence at Hôtel Matignon when he took workplace.
In 1992 Mr Barnier took nice delight in bringing the Winter Olympics to the Savoie – a feat that he mentioned had taught him about engaged on large initiatives involving many individuals, whereas all the time maintaining a tally of the prize.
He entered politics the next 12 months and served as a cupboard minister in numerous French governments for a number of years. In 2010, he grew to become the EU’s inner market commissioner – one of the coveted jobs within the European Fee.
Nonetheless, Mr Barnier aimed increased. In 2014 he mounted an unsuccessful try to turn into president of the European Fee, finally shedding out to Jean-Claude Juncker.
Getty PicturesIn July 2016, a month after the UK voted to go away the EU, Mr Juncker – who mentioned he wished an “skilled politician for this tough job” – picked Mr Barnier to barter the Brexit deal.
His nomination was a shock for a few of Mr Barnier’s fellow Frenchmen, who had by no means held him in significantly excessive esteem. Only some years earlier, a journalist from French paper Libération had famously mentioned that Mr Barnier – by then a veteran politician – would all the time simply be a “good, white-teethed skier, ever so intellectually restricted”.
On the EU facet, nonetheless, Mr Barnier was well-known for being diligent and methodical. Crucially, he was additionally seen as cool-headed – a precious trait throughout the first febrile months after the Brexit referendum.
All through the gruelling Brexit course of he needed to work with an ever-changing forged of British negotiators and prime ministers, however Mr Barnier remained largely unflappable, dealing with what he repeatedly referred to as a “pricey and painful divorce”.
Though he was most frequently pictured sitting round negotiating tables in Brussels or London, a lot of the work to disentangle the UK from the EU was carried out by Mr Barnier’s workers. Behind the scenes, his chief job was to journey round Europe and construct consensus among the many 27 member states to make sure the EU maintained a united entrance.
Within the course of, he grew to become a well-known sight on TV screens on either side of the Channel and past – tall, smooth and debonaire, typically flanked by an EU flag and usually inscrutable.
There was little emotion in his voice when, seamlessly switching from English to French, he introduced on 24 December 2020 that the EU and the UK had reached a post-Brexit commerce deal.
Mr Barnier – ever keen on climbing metaphors – had as soon as likened Brexit to climbing a mountain. Quickly after that peak was conquered, he started his ascent to the subsequent one.
In the summertime of 2021, he launched a bid to be conservative candidate within the 2022 French presidential election, sparing no criticism of President Emmanuel Macron, who he mentioned had dominated France in an “boastful” method.
Away from Brussels, Mr Barnier started to shed his picture of a consummate EU technocrat.
He referred to as for staunch anti-immigration insurance policies to be applied in France and throughout the EU, and mentioned France ought to have the ability to ignore sure rulings of the European Courtroom of Justice and the European Courtroom of Human Rights. Some observers had been shocked, and interpreted this as populist transfer.
Others felt Mr Barnier was merely heeding the teachings of Brexit and maintaining a tally of the temper of voters.
Getty PicturesHowever his bid to be the Republicans’ presidential candidate was unsuccessful, and for the previous three years Mr Barnier has made little noise, as France’s political panorama has turn into more and more polarised.
His title had come up often as a possible candidate for prime minister after the July 2024 snap election that left France deadlocked. But it surely was not till 60 days after the vote that he was named PM by President Macron.
Though Mr Barnier remains to be primarily generally known as Monsieur Brexit, President Macron is prone to have chosen him as a result of they’re each from the pro-European institution and share the identical right-wing leanings on the financial entrance.
His Republican background places him at odds with left-wing events, but it surely does imply that centrist, right-wing and populist forces may assist him survive the primary hurdle of his premiership – a probable vote of confidence.
David Davis, who labored carefully with Mr Barnier for a number of years because the UK’s Brexit Secretary, instructed the BBC he was “a very strong Frenchman” who was “well-grounded in the true France”.
In his first tackle as prime minister, Mr Barnier acknowledged the challenges of the duty forward and vowed to inform the reality “even whether it is laborious to listen to”.
“There’s a want for respect, appeasement and unity,” he mentioned, in a nod to the fraught political panorama he now presides over.
“I’m embarking on this new section, this new clean web page, with quite a lot of humility.”
