France Macron appoints former EU Commissioner Barnier as prime minister

Less than two months after the parliamentary elections, France's head of state Emmanuel Macron has appointed former EU Commissioner Michel Barnier as head of government.

The Élysée Palace announced that Macron had given Barnier the task of forming a coalition government. Prior to this, Macron had held days of talks with all political forces in parliament in order to sound out the broadest and most stable government possible.

The 73-year-old Barnier is an influential figure in France's conservative Républicains. He can look back on a political career spanning decades. He was Environment Minister under François Mitterrand, Foreign Minister under Jacques Chirac and Agriculture Minister under Nicolas Sarkozy. Born in eastern France, he has also worked several times as an EU Commissioner. He also served as the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator.

It remains to be seen whether Barnier will be able to form a government with a majority. The Conservatives have emphasized that they do not want to be part of a government. However, they are likely to at least tolerate a government led by Barnier. The new head of government is likely to have the support of the Macron camp.

However, it is difficult to predict how he could get the necessary votes from the left-wing camp. It is possible that the right-wing nationalists will ultimately tolerate him - out of support for Barnier's restrictive positions on migration policy.

With the change of government, the liberal Macron will have to relinquish power. The prime minister will become more important as head of government policy. Macron retains the upper hand in foreign policy.

In the early parliamentary elections, the left-wing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire came out ahead of Macron's centrist forces and the right-wing nationalist Rassemblement National led by Marine Le Pen. None of the camps received an absolute majority. The process of forming a government therefore stalled for a long time.

The main challenge for Macron was to find a prime minister who did not have a majority against him and could therefore be toppled by a vote of no confidence.