Why has Macron chosen Barnier as French PM?

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00:00I want to talk to, bring in France 24's European Affairs Editor, Armin Georgian, who can talk

00:04about that, his European credentials. Emmanuel Macron is a fierce defender of Europe and

00:11so is Michel Barnier.

00:12Yeah, and they were in close touch actually during the Brexit negotiations. They texted

00:18each other a lot and it's pretty obvious, I think, that Macron appreciated how Barnier

00:25handled the British attempts to split the Europeans during the negotiations, because

00:32of course the British were trying to open separate lines of communication with the European

00:37Commission, with the Germans and so forth. And so, in a sense, Barnier really kept all

00:42that together. That's, of course, something that Macron appreciated. So even though Barnier

00:48has said some things about Emmanuel Macron that are not particularly, what's the word,

00:56not very flattering, the fact is Macron must trust him enough from knowing, having known

01:04him for a long time, of course, and particularly during this period of Brexit talks that Barnier

01:11really kept on track for several years.

01:15I mean, considering that his name was not even in the running, Marc, let's bring you

01:20in because Emmanuel Macron, when he dissolved Parliament, he, of course, dissolved Parliament

01:26in the aftermath of European elections, where his party did quite badly. And then he said

01:30he wanted a government that was reflective of the mood at the time. Then we had the snap

01:34parliamentary vote. We all know the outcome of that vote. And now he goes and picks somebody

01:39from the right. If you're on the left of the political spectrum here in France, you must

01:44be up in arms, won't you?

01:45They will be up in arms. Obviously, they are already reacting, obviously, negatively because

01:51if you look at it, Michel Barnier hails from the Conservative Party. It's probably the

01:58worst performer in the last few years. I mean, they've lost the presidential election, the

02:04European elections, the legislative elections. They only have 50 or 60 MPs in Parliament,

02:13which is really, really a very low number. And they get the prime ministership. Well,

02:19yes, but it's a reflection of how fractured the new French political scene is. And Emmanuel

02:27Macron basically had a choice between centre-left and centre-right. And he felt probably that

02:35if the national rally doesn't veto Michel Barnier, Michel Barnier is more or less in

02:42agreement with him on some of the key reforms Emmanuel Macron wants to really make sure

02:49they stay, especially the pension system reform, because a leftist prime minister would have

02:56said, we abrogate your reform or we suspend it. Michel Barnier will not do so because,

03:02as is traditional for the Conservatives, he wants actually to push the retirement age,

03:07even set previously to 65, now it's 64. So there won't be a problem with Emmanuel Macron.

03:13Europe, obviously, there'll be no clouds on the horizon. The big question is, what will

03:21he do in terms of the budget? Well, we can assume that he will not raise taxes, that

03:27he will say we need really to keep the budget, the debt, the deficit in line. So this is

03:34more or less what Emmanuel Macron has been advocating, especially since his re-election,

03:39a Conservative policy. The big question will be how they will behave vis-à-vis one another.

03:46That's the personal factor. And no one has the answer for that because Emmanuel Macron

03:50is a lame duck. He cannot be re-elected. He lost the election. He wants someone who

03:57will be there, maybe not too much of a challenger, but Michel Barnier is maybe not so well-known,

04:04but he's an experienced politician. He's old enough to make sure that he will be able

04:10to get some wiggle room to be able to be a real prime minister and not someone who

04:15pretends to be prime minister.

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