The appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister—after many weeks of procrastination—has given rise to many different responses in France, not only to his personality and programme, but also to what it says about the future political balance of the country.
Unsurprisingly, reactions have been very mixed on the Left and the Right. Many see this appointment as out of step with the desires of large swathes of the electorate—even those who now crave political stability.
Laurent Wauquiez, leader of the deputies of the Republican Right (La Droite Républicaine), welcomed the choice of Barnier, a man from the ranks of his former party, the erstwhile Les Républicains. To his supporters, he looks able to remove the obstacles that had been building up for weeks. However, the participation of his party in the government still depends on the policies that the incoming prime minister intends to put forward, including on the crucial points of purchasing power, public finances, immigration and security.
Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) was cautiously enthusiastic upon hearing the news. There was no question of participating in the government, as party spokesman Laurent Jacobelli pointed out. The question of censure will not automatically arise, but the RN intends to exercise vigilance to ensure that certain guarantees are respected, and will, if necessary, use the blocking minority of its 142 MPs in the National Assembly to make its voice heard. The RN’s allies insist the party should not show excessive benevolence if they are to continue to embody the only opposition worth having to Emmanuel Macron’s policies. “Only the union of the rights will bring about the real change the country needs,” Éric Ciotti said on X.
Outside the parties, within the national Right, some voices are being raised to criticise the continued positioning of a man at the service of the European institutions and the destruction of French sovereignty. For these people, Barnier remains Nicolas Sarkozy’s collaborator who was responsible for getting the European Constitutional Treaty accepted after it was overwhelmingly rejected by the French in the 2005 referendum. Some historic figures in Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National, such as Bruno Gollnisch and Jean-Yves Le Gallou, hail him as an adversary, but a dignified and courteous one who never gave in to the usual French political hatred for Le Pen’s party.
On the Left, the anger is palpable. The main figures in the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition consider this to be a “democratic betrayal,” in the words of Olivier Faure, Secretary General of the Socialist Party, who refuses to allow any member of his party to take part in the government now under construction. Manuel Bompard of La France Insoumise (LFI) talks of a “Macron-Le Pen” government, since it now seems clear that Emmanuel Macron has chosen a man who would not automatically face censure from Marine Le Pen’s party in the assembly. He decries the fact that the second-round agreements to keep out the RN, reached between the NFP coalition and Emmanuel Macron’s party, did not result in a left-wing government. His camp forgets that it refused any form of accommodation and adopted a hard-line stance that has definitely kept it out of power: “The far right is now the kingmaker,” lamented Manuel Bompard, who fears that Michel Barnier will adopt a political line “that is closer to the RN.” To further discredit the incoming PM, the far left dug up a 40-year-old vote in which Barnier opposed lowering the age limit for decriminalising homosexual relations.
The Left is now clearly calling on the French people to resist: “The watchwords are censure, mobilisation, impeachment,” Bompard declared on BFM TV.
Barnier now has some heavy tasks ahead of him. As well as putting together a government that can muster maximum support in the National Assembly, he must also, in a very short time, put together the budget for 2025—which according to the constitution—must be adopted by October 1st.
The new Prime Minister is due to speak on French television on the evening of September 6th.
