Michel Barnier says will not create ‘government of the right’

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Michel Barnier said the new government of France would not just come from his own conservative camp as the freshly appointed prime minister promised to look at ways to improve the country’s controversial pension reform. 

The veteran French politician and former chief Brexit negotiator for the EU, said he would not appoint “a government of the right”. 

“There will be people from my political family, perhaps outgoing ministers, but I am not going to do a casting call now,” the 73-year-old said on TV channel TF1 in his first interview since his appointment on Thursday by President Emmanuel Macron.

“I do not rule out bringing competent men and women around the table from the outgoing [centrist] majority . . . and people on the left, too. Sectarianism is a sign of weakness,” he said. 

Handed office nearly two months after snap legislative elections returned a deeply divided, hung parliament in Paris, Barnier now faces the challenge of putting together a stable government.

This is likely to require a delicate balancing act as he works to cobble together a working majority.

It is the first time that an election has returned no clear majority in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, and the fraught July vote sharply reduced the number of seats held by the president’s own centrist alliance. 

Macron’s term runs until 2027, however, so president and prime minister will have to figure out how to work together despite coming from different political camps. This marked a “new era”, Barnier said, signalling his independence from the Élysée Palace. “The president will preside and the government will govern.”

Barnier has said he will be open to examining ways to improve the controversial 2023 pension reform that increased France’s retirement age. A pillar of Macron’s second term, the changes sparked national protests.

The prime minister said he did not want to “call into question everything” in the law. “I’ll open the debate on improving this law for the most vulnerable people,” he said on Friday. 

But while Barnier signalled a willingness to look at altering some Macron economic policies, he said he would not compromise on efforts to control France’s rising public debt.

“In the time I’m here, which I hope is until the end of the presidential term . . . I don’t want to increase our country’s debt,” he said. 

Passing the 2025 budget will be the Barnier government’s first big hurdle. The process, which kicks off in October, is likely to prove contentious in a parliament sharply divided across the political spectrum. 

Earlier this week outgoing finance minister Bruno Le Maire warned of worsening public finances as he announced that France’s public deficit for this year would be higher than expected and substantial cuts would be needed to improve the trajectory next year.

Barnier also said that tighter control on immigration would be among his priorities, an issue that is fundamental to the far-right Rassemblement National.

The party came in second in the July vote and has emerged as a kingmaker in the negotiations to form the next government, even though it will not participate in any emerging coalition. 

Barnier indicated his approach to immigration would be “rigorous and humanist” — signalling a less radical approach than the RN — and said he had not had any exchanges with RN leader Marine Le Pen.

“We will control migratory flows not with ideology and speeches but with concrete measures . . . from my own party. But there have been proposals everywhere,” Barnier said. “No one has a monopoly on good ideas.”