Macron Appoints Conservative as French Prime Minister

France’s President Emmanuel Macron Thursday appointed Michel Barnier, formerly the European Union’s Brexit negotiator as Prime Minister after over 50 days after France’s inconclusive parliamentary elections. 

The elections saw Macron’s centrists and the hard left prevent the populist Rassemblement National from winning a majority but left the National Assembly divided into three seemingly irreconcilable groups, with none of the groups having a majority. 

Macron was in the difficult position of having to appoint a prime minister who would not immediately face a vote of no confidence from either the RN or the left. The selection of Barnier suggests that Macron intends to appeal to the right while maintaining many of his current policies. Barnier has pledged stricter immigration controls while preserving Macron’s neoliberal economic reforms.

“There still is a feeling that our borders are sieves and that migration flows aren’t being controlled,” Barnier said in an interview on Friday.

Macron’s attempt to appeal to the right seems to have succeeded for now. Jordan Bardella, the parliamentary leader of the RN, said his party would not vote to censure and topple Barnier’s government but will judge it “on its merits.”  It appears that the French have breathed a collective sigh of relief as they have a functioning parliament for the first time since June. A poll by France’s BFMTV network shows that 73 percent of the French support this move by the RN not to immediately censure Barnier’s government, in spite of Barnier’s nomination receiving only 40 percent approval.

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