France’s New Premier Barnier Faced With Parliamentary Chaos
- Former Brexit negotiator has no political base of his own
- Barnier represents return to old generation of French leaders
Michel Barnier in Paris on Sept. 5.
Photographer: Nathan Laine/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Michel Barnier, a former foreign minister and European commissioner, has kept away from French politics since suffering defeat in his party primary ahead of the 2022 presidential election.
But in a bitterly divided parliament with little prospect of any major policy advances, that lack of a political base is one of the qualities that made the 73-year-old conservative a viable candidate to become France’s next prime minister.