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France’s new prime minister has had an extended profession in politics, however Michel Barnier is finest identified, even in his native France, because the EU’s chief negotiator in the course of the Brexit years. His job was to characterize the European Union in talks with the British authorities.
Born in 1951 within the mountainous Savoie area of southeastern France, Mr Barnier is an avid skier and hiker and has been a dedicated, patriotic conservative within the custom of French chief Charles de Gaulle since his teenage years.
He joined the right-wing Union for the Defence of the Republic (UDR) celebration as a young person. To this present day, he nonetheless belongs to the UDR’s successor, the Republicans (LR).
Mr Barnier didn’t attend France’s elite École Nationale d’Administration, from which lots of the nation’s leaders have come. However he made historical past when, at 27, he turned the youngest member of parliament ever to be elected.
In 1982, he married Isabelle Altmayer, a lawyer. The couple have three grownup youngsters, and he or she was current within the courtyard of the prime minister’s residence, the Hôtel Matignon, when he took workplace.
In 1992, Mr Barnier was proud to have introduced the Winter Olympics to Savoie. He stated that this achievement had taught him work on massive tasks involving many individuals, whereas all the time maintaining the aim in thoughts.
The next 12 months, he entered politics and served for a number of years as a minister in numerous French governments. In 2010, he turned the EU’s inner market commissioner, one of the coveted positions within the European Fee.
But Mr Barnier aimed increased. In 2014, he made an unsuccessful try and turn into president of the European Fee, however in the end misplaced to Jean-Claude Juncker.
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Michel Barnier on the Albertville Olympic Stadium previous to the 1992 Winter Olympics
In July 2016, a month after the UK voted to go away the EU, Juncker – who stated he wished an “skilled politician for this troublesome activity” – selected Barnier to barter the Brexit deal.
His nomination got here as a shock to a few of Mr Barnier’s French-speaking colleagues, who had by no means thought a lot of him. Only some years earlier, a journalist for the French newspaper Libération had famously stated that Mr Barnier – now a seasoned politician – would all the time be “a pleasant, white-toothed skier, however intellectually restricted”.
On the EU facet, nevertheless, Mr Barnier was identified for his diligence and methodology. Crucially, he was additionally seen as cool – a priceless asset in the course of the first feverish months after the Brexit referendum.
Throughout the gruelling Brexit course of, he needed to work with an ever-changing group of British negotiators and prime ministers, however Barnier remained largely unruffled and confronted what he repeatedly known as a “pricey and painful divorce”.
Though he was most frequently pictured at negotiating tables in Brussels or London, a lot of the work of extracting the UK from the EU was accomplished by Mr Barnier’s workers. Behind the scenes, his important job was to journey round Europe and construct consensus among the many 27 member states to make sure the EU remained a united entrance.
Over time, he turned a well-recognized face on tv screens on either side of the Channel and past: tall, lean and chic, often flanked by an EU flag and usually inscrutable.
There was little emotion in his voice as he switched seamlessly from English to French on December 24, 2020, to announce that the EU and the UK had reached a post-Brexit commerce deal.
Mr Barnier – all the time keen on strolling metaphors – had as soon as in contrast Brexit to climbing a mountain. Shortly after that peak had been conquered, he started his ascent to the subsequent.
In the summertime of 2021, he made a bid to turn into a conservative candidate within the 2022 French presidential election. He didn’t draw back from criticizing President Emmanuel Macron, who he stated had ruled France in an “smug” method.
Exterior Brussels, Barnier started to shed his picture because the consummate EU technocrat.
He known as for the implementation of a strict anti-immigration coverage in France and throughout the EU, and stated that France ought to be capable to ignore sure rulings by the European Courtroom of Justice and the European Courtroom of Human Rights. Some observers had been stunned and interpreted this as a populist transfer.
Others felt that Barnier was merely taking the teachings of Brexit to coronary heart and monitoring the temper amongst voters.
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Michel Barnier and Brexit Secretary David Davis throughout talks in Downing Road in 2018
Nevertheless, his bid to turn into the Republican presidential candidate failed and Barnier has remained largely silent over the previous three years as France’s political panorama has turn into more and more polarised.
His identify had sometimes been floated as a possible candidate for prime minister after the July 2024 snap elections that left France deadlocked. Nevertheless it was not till 60 days after the vote that he was appointed prime minister by President Macron.
Though Mr Barnier remains to be finest generally known as Mr BrexitIt’s seemingly that President Macron selected him as a result of they each belong to the pro-European institution and share the identical right-wing leanings on financial points.
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 overcome the primary hurdle of his premiership: a possible vote of confidence.
David Davis, who labored carefully with Barnier for a few years because the UK’s Brexit minister, instructed the BBC he was “a really strong Frenchman” who was “nicely rooted in the actual France”.
In his first speech as prime minister, Barnier acknowledged the challenges of the duty forward and pledged to inform the reality, “even when it’s exhausting to listen to”.
“There’s a want for respect, reconciliation and unity,” he stated, in a nod to the fraught political panorama he now presides over.
“I start this new section, this new clean web page, with nice humility.”
Michel Barnier’s journey from Mr Brexit to French Prime Minister
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