He has been a general councillor for the canton of Bourg-Saint-Maurice, in Savoie, for four years when, on the other side of the country, in Amiens, a little boy was born who answered to the name of Emmanuel Macron. And then Michel Barnier would be a member of parliament for a long time, a minister, often, for Mitterrand (under the cohabitation), for Chirac, for Sarkozy, a European commissioner too, twice, chief negotiator of Brexit. “He has achieved recognition as a head of state”, he would say in The World the Secretary of State for European Affairs at the time, Clément Beaune. Except in France, Michel Barnier would happily add.
In July, he is on the phone. Since the left is proposing a government offer, he is trying to counterbalance. He has always advocated a programmatic alliance and not poaching, so he is giving it a try. After the second round of the legislative elections, he speaks to François Bayrou, Bruno Le Maire, Valérie Pécresse. To Gérard Larcher too, a lot. “I have no feverishness, and, if I am past the age of being opportunistic, there should be no doubt about my determination”, Michel Barnier often says to his friends.
In August, he disappeared from the radar. And opted for the slow race. He understood that Emmanuel Macron was the type to procrastinate – nothing escapes him. On Monday, September 2, Michel Barnier had no news but had not given up on anything. All eyes were on Xavier Bertrand? “I am acceptable to Laurent Wauquiez, who does not see me as a competitor for 2027,” he confided, highlighting his trademark: “I know how to make everyone work.”
Outside our borders, he is a figure who counts. And not only in Brussels: our best enemies, the English, questioned themselves, in 2020, through two pages of the Daily Mirror : would he be “patient zero”, he who was among the first to be infected with Covid? Even Boris Johnson asked him the question, in a joking tone, during an interview.
In 2002, Michel Barnier actively participated in the campaign that would lead to the incredible re-election of Jacques Chirac. Once the outgoing president had beaten Jean-Marie Le Pen, Michel Barnier was offered nothing. Two years later, as European Commissioner, he sent a message to the Elysée: he could only leave his post in Brussels for the Quai d’Orsay, out of decency towards the Europeans. “He knows how to be smart,” noted one of his friends. And it worked! There he was, succeeding Dominique de Villepin as Minister of Foreign Affairs. The fall would be harder, the humiliation even. Barely a year later and the day after a lost referendum on Europe, he was ousted. That was not the worst, which was in the name of his successor: his name was in fact Philippe Douste-Blazy, whose international skills and appetite for diplomacy had not struck people. “He was very angry with Chirac,” recalls a close friend. “At the same time, to imagine that promises are always kept is to misunderstand politics, right?”
Between Barnier and Chirac, it was definitely a festival of misunderstandings. Yes, THE Barnier. Because, in 1977, a lady challenged the president of the RPR at the time about a party investiture, during a meeting on the place of women in society: “Who do you take us for? You are explaining to us here the opposite of what you are doing in Paris.” Chirac replied, then returned to his seat and leaned towards his neighbor on the podium, Michel Barnier, the very same one he had come to support for the legislative elections: “Who is this good woman? – She is my mother.”
Disappointed with Chiracism, disappointed with Macronism. This president arrived to the tune ofHymn to Joy could only catch the ear, and the eye, of Michel Barnier. However, he believes that this young president missed the boat, faced with a real problem of governance, a solitary, even arrogant exercise of power. It is also a missed opportunity between the two men. With Emmanuel Macron, yes, he spoke about the presidency of the European Commission, no, his membership in LR did not pose a problem for the head of state. Michel Barnier acknowledges a misunderstanding and therefore a disappointment: he could have been the first Frenchman since Jacques Delors to be propelled to the head of the Commission. The president would also have toyed with the idea of appointing him to Matignon to replace Edouard Philippe – in this case he mainly played with the nerves of the person concerned, and did not make him an ally.
Patience and length of time. Here he is, the distant successor of Emmanuel Macron’s first Prime Minister – we won’t bet that it will be the last. One day, he told Emmanuel Macron: to create a void between the president and Marine Le Pen is to risk falling into it. The legislative elections were marked by the seal of the Republican front. Michel Barnier is – finally – at the head of the government. But he has never been so close, and the country with him, to the void.
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