While he has receded from political life in recent years, the new French premier earned plenty of respect in Brussels as lead Brexit negotiator.
Two months after the snap elections resulted in a divided legislature, French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed two-time European Commissioner Michel Barnier to the office of prime minister, saying he wanted to create “a unifying government in the service of the country”.
As he prepares to take the helm, Barnier’s erstwhile colleagues in Brussels are lining up to congratulate him on his return to the heart of European politics.
“I’m very happy about the nomination of Michel Barnier,” former European Commission president Jean Claude Juncker told Euronews.
“I appointed him as chief negotiator for Brexit, and during this time, I felt his talent to listen and to speak in a comprehensive way to those listening to him. He was very smart, also very well prepared.”
“In the details of the (Brexit) negotiations, he was the best one could have imagined — he has a real talent as negotiator because he did it in a different way. He was speaking to his British counterparts, to all the prime ministers, to the Parliament, the Commission several times per week,” said Juncker, who also pushed back on pro-Brexit politicians’ caricature of Barnier as an “enemy of Britain”.
“He had a positive idea of the UK and wanted only to get the best out of the negotiations,” said Juncker, who led the European Commission from 2014-2019.
‘He’s used to negotiating’
Macron’s first choices were former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve and the centre-right president of the northern French region Hauts-de-France, Xavier Bertrand. Also said to be in the mix was right-wing Cannes Mayor David Lisnard.
None of these names were seen as likely to win the approval of parliament, given France’s ever-widening political divisions. However, according to those who worked closely with him during the rancorous Brexit negotiations, Barnier has the skills to at least try to bridge the divide.
Juncker predicted he would “try to bring people together that cannot imagine they can work together.”
“He’s used to negotiating with coalition governments across Europe. And he is not from the far-right, he’s from the moderate, centre right,” the former president said.
Asked whether Barnier could manage to temper the deeply entrenched divisions facing France right now, Juncker sounded hopeful.
“Let’s not exaggerate the influence he can have on the situation in France. But he is without a doubt one of the best choices at this time.”
Keeping the EU together
Meanwhile, Georg Riekeles, Barnier’s diplomatic adviser during Brexit, said the 73-year-old’s success in “steadying the ship” after the shock of Brexit in 2016 was his “standout achievement”.
“We don’t think about it now, but one was asking oneself in 2016 whether Brexit was the start of a wider European push for referendums. You had political leaders saying, ‘this is our moment’. It was seen as an existential moment for the EU.”
“One of the things he managed as part of the team effort was to make the 27 (member states) stick together.”
ADVERTISEMENTRiekeles says there were concerns in Brussels that the Brexit referendum could trigger nothing less than the demise of the EU and that the unity that emerged during the subsequent negotiations was “far from a foregone conclusion”.
“The question at the time was whether the EU could stay united, with one negotiator, or whether big or small member states would go it alone for trying to get the best deal out of it,” recalls Riekeles, who is now associate director at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre think-tank.
“He built a common platform with fundamental principles and rallied behind and understood what was at stake for Ireland and Northern Ireland. And if an issue was existential for one country, it was existential for all. He made the point there’s no point in being in a union otherwise.”
“Also, the message of ‘protecting the integrity of the Single Market’ — he was the architect of this unity”.
ADVERTISEMENTThe other side
The praise for Barnier flowing from Brussels makes a radical change from the diminished profile he held just weeks ago. In fact, for all the credit he received during the Brexit process, it looked until now like Barnier’s career had reached the end of the road.
Despite having held several prominent jobs in previous governments — including minister of foreign affairs, minister of agriculture, and minister delegate for European affairs — he is often described as having little or no political profile in France.
As former British diplomat Peter Ricketts posted on X: “I’ve known Barnier on and off for 30 years since he was Europe minister for Chirac in 1995. He’s a competent technocrat, formal, unbending, and not that well known in France as he has spent decades in various jobs in Brussels.
“His main advantage for Macron now is probably that he has fewer enemies than others considered. That’s key as his task is to put together a Gov’t which will survive a censure motion, and then get a budget through.”
ADVERTISEMENTMeanwhile, Barnier’s admiring former EU colleagues have avoided mentioning the dramatic shift to the populist right during his ill-fated bid for his party’s nomination for the French presidency in 2021.
He called for a “moratorium on immigration” and tightening criteria for family reunification. He also called for French law to be given primacy over European or international law, of France once again having “legal sovereignty in order to no longer be subject to the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union”.
But ultimately, his bid fell flat, and the Republicans declined to make him their nominee, at which point he faded from politics for a few years — until his sudden return this week.
