Michel Barnier was appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron. The new occupant of Matignon holds a very right-wing line on certain issues, notably immigration.
16:43 – The European Treaty of Lisbon in 2004, a resounding failure
The general public knows Michel Barnier in particular through his various ministerial functions. His first portfolio was that of the Environment between 1993 and 1995, during the second cohabitation under François Mitterrand and with Edouard Balladur as Prime Minister. He would then be one of the ministers closest to Jacques Chirac, who first entrusted him with European Affairs between 1995 and 1997, an entry point to the prestigious Quai d’Orsay where he became Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2004 and 2005. There, he would sign a resounding failure when defending the European Treaty of Lisbon in 2004. Jacques Chirac lost the referendum and Michel Barnier his post since he was not reappointed.
16:32 – Will Rachida Dati be part of the Barnier government?
Rachida Dati, who made her last splash in January, when she was appointed Minister of Culture by Emmanuel Macron, could well find Michel Barnier on her path. Ironically, it will be up to Michel Barnier to decide on the future of his former running mate in the government. Because the Élysée has been able to suggest in recent weeks that Rachida Dati, who resigned since the majority’s defeat in the legislative elections, could be reappointed.
16:21 – An extremely rich political career
Appointed Prime Minister on September 5, 2024, Michel Barnier has a long political career behind him, marked by brilliant achievements on the European scene but also its share of failures and controversies in France.
16:10 – His mother founded the League against road violence in Haute-Savoie
Michel Barnier is the youngest of three boys. His father Jean was the boss of a company manufacturing jewelry boxes. His mother Denise, a committed Catholic and feminist, founded the League against road violence in Haute-Savoie, after the death of one of her grandsons in an accident. A tragedy that, according to his relatives, forged the character of the politician. In the coming weeks, he will need to prove it.
15:58 – A very diligent athlete
A great sportsman despite his 73 years, Michel Barnier is a fan of cycling and swimming, which he practices almost daily. He was also the co-president of the organizing committee of the Winter Olympic Games in Albertville in 1992.
15:49 – His eldest son also involved in politics
Married for 42 years to Isabelle Altmayer, a former lawyer who turned communications, Michel Barnier is living the perfect love affair and has always led his family life away from the spotlight. The couple had three children: Nicolas, Benjamin and Laetitia. The eldest, Nicolas Barnier, 33, is following in his father’s footsteps since he is involved in politics. A candidate on a Belgian liberal list in the 2019 European elections, he has been a project manager at the Presidency of the Senate since 2021. He is also involved in humanitarian actions in Haiti. Isabelle Altmayer works in the shadows. After being a lawyer for 10 years, she turned to communications. Since 2016, she has been responsible for communications and fundraising for the “La vie au Grand Air” foundation, which works in child protection.
15:38 – A failed primary campaign in 2021
Michel Barnier returns to the forefront by running in the 2021 LR primary for the 2022 presidential election. “Authority, dialogue, trust” is then his mantra, quickly eclipsed by a controversial proposal, that of a “referendum and a moratorium on immigration”. It is combined with the ambition to “regain our legal sovereignty”, even if it means no longer submitting to the rulings of the EU, the European Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights in the lead. Outcry within LR who sees this as his shift towards ideas close to the RN. He will then try the idea of a “constitutional shield” which would have priority over the EU before falling into line behind the candidacy of Valérie Pécresse.
15:26 – In government, Barnier will meet an old acquaintance
The appointment of Michel Barnier to Matignon will revive many memories. Among them, that of an electoral campaign 15 years ago, where Michel Barnier found himself forced to team up with another figure of the right, also recently rallied to Emmanuel Macron: a certain Rachida Dati.
15:17 – A very right-wing program for the 2022 presidential election
Now Prime Minister, Michel Barnier will have to govern. And in 2021, his political lines were clear, it remains to be seen whether he will have the possibility of applying them under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, which today appears very complicated.
Michel Barnier placed his candidacy for the 2022 presidential election under a heading, that of a “reconciled France”. The Savoyard intended to bring together the right and the center to succeed Emmanuel Macron. To seduce his electorate, Michel Barnier declined some campaign themes that are dear to him. The “joker” of the right notably aims to limit and control immigration, decarbonize the French economy and restore to work all its value and its central place in society.
15:02 – First controversy for Michel Barnier? This archive is turning into Macronie
In 1981, Michel Barnier, the new tenant of Matignon, voted against the decriminalization of homosexuality. An archive which, according to the political journalist of TF1, Paul Larrouturou, has been circulating “in the Macronist network” since the appointment of the Savoyard. It could constitute the first controversy surrounding the new Prime Minister.
Some in the Macronist network are currently circulating this archive: in 1981, Michel Barnier voted against the decriminalization of homosexuality.
(Catherine Vautrin had notably been removed from Matignon following her opposition to same-sex marriage.) #PrimeMinister pic.twitter.com/QIjicyGXfN— Paul Larrouturou (@PaulLarrouturou) September 5, 2024
14:56 – A historic Savoyard elected official
Born in La Tronche (Isère), Michel Barnier was elected general councillor of Savoie in 1973. He became its president in 1982 for 17 years. The Savoyard was also one of the personalities who pushed for, worked towards, and obtained the organisation of the Winter Olympics in Albertville in 1992. At the end of the 1980s, he was a member of parliament for Savoie, before joining the government for the first time, under the leadership of Edouard Balladur, and the presidency of François Mitterrand. He is Minister of the Environment.
2:45 p.m. – The handover between Attal and Barnier is scheduled for 6 p.m.
The transfer of power between the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his successor, the oldest tenant of Matignon of the Fifth Republic, Michel Barnier, will take place at Matignon at 6 p.m. this Thursday, September 5, 2024. Custom dictates that a speech follows this transfer.
14:37 – Married and father of three children
Concerning his private life, the new tenant of Matignon is the father of three children, a first son, Nicolas, born in 1986, then twins: Laetitia and Benjamin, born in 1988, from his union with Isabelle Barnier.
14:28 – From 2021, the idea of a moratorium on immigration
In 2021, Michel Barnier positioned himself in favor of greater control over immigration in France. To achieve this, the candidate proposed a moratorium of three to five years three years ago. The principle: to put a stop to illegal immigration and take the time to evaluate, with hindsight, French migration policy. Michel Barnier intends to include other European countries in his project, in order to achieve, among other things, the definition of a common asylum policy.
14:16 – The EU’s “Mr. Brexit”
In 2016, Michel Barnier was appointed chief negotiator of the European Union for Brexit. The Frenchman’s main mission was to prepare and conduct negotiations with the British government for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. Michel Barnier’s participation in Brexit officially ended on March 31, 2021. A few months later, Michel Barnier announced his candidacy for the post of President of the French Republic.
Can Michel Barnier be appointed Prime Minister? In the columns of OpinionWednesday, September 4, the name of the former European Union negotiator of the Brexit conditions and candidate for the right-wing primary for the 2022 presidential election, who at the time intended to “bring together the right, the center and others”, appeared as the best option. The daily newspaper suggests that this hypothesis would be preferred by the Secretary General of the Élysée, Alexis Kohler, who has been arguing from the beginning in favor of a rather technical profile for Matignon. A point on which Michel Barnier seems to correspond, beyond his partisan commitments within the right.
Minister under Balladur, Juppé and Fillon, MP for Savoie, senator and European MP, the native of La Tronche, near Grenoble (Isère), now aged 73, has a political CV that is, to say the least, quite full. Michel Barnier is especially considered less divisive than Xavier Bertrand and David Lisnard, the other right-wing personalities mentioned for this position.
The former Brexit negotiator should, like the others, be censored by all the deputies of the New Popular Front. “Barnier is a right-wing policy. The issue is no longer even the casting, but the line. Macron must now assume what he wants as a coalition in Parliament,” reacted the socialist Pierre Jouvet to the capital’s daily newspaper on Wednesday evening. The line within the left has been quite clear since the results of the legislative elections: any government with a different orientation than theirs will be censored. If hesitations can divide the alliance of the New Popular Front on a few center-left profiles mentioned for Matignon, there is no doubt about a censorship of the PS, ecologist, LFI and PCF deputies against an LR personality.
Michel Barnier could, however, govern if he is not censured by the National Rally deputies. This is in reality the decisive factor for a right-wing personality to be appointed to Matignon, given the weakness of the Macronist bloc and the refusal of the left-wing bloc to participate in a coalition with the Macronists: only an implicit agreement from Marine Le Pen can allow an LR Prime Minister to remain at the head of a government. According to the first statements by RN personalities, this Thursday, September 5, it is unlikely that the RN will not vote for a motion of censure against Michel Barnier.