Former lead Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has been named the new Prime Minister of France. 

President Emmanuel Macron appointed Mr Barnier following weeks of mounting pressure after the French general elections. 

He is now tasked with forming a government almost two months after the general election that sent France into a political deadlock.

The summer election saw the New Popular Front (NFP), a broad left-wing alliance, take the most seats at 180.  

Elections in France

Mr Macron refused to name a Prime Minster from the NFP coalition, however, due to concerns this would spark outrage among the right-wing sector of parliament. 

Mr Barnier’s party The Republicans gained just 61 seats. The party is a liberal-conservative party founded after the dissolution of the Union for a Popular Movement. 

The National Rally, a new right-wing party, gained 89 seats but was still a major player in the formation of the new parliament. 

NR leader Marine LePen said following Mr Barnier’s appointment that her party will demand “the new head of government respect the 11 million French people who voted for the National Rally”

“We will be attentive to the project that he will carry, and attentive to ensuring that the aspirations of our voters, who represent a third of the French, are heard and respected,” she wrote on X. 

Michel Barnier. Image: Peter Cavanagh / Alamy Stock Photo

Mr Barnier was the Head of the UK Task Force and led the EU’s negotiations with Britain after Brexit from 2019 to 2021. 

He was also the main negotiator for 2020 trade deal negotiation between the UK and EU. 

The EU predicted the trade deal negotiated by Mr Barnier would limit the drop in exports from the UK to the EU to 9% and it would have been a 14% if there was no deal. 

The liberal-conservative politician once described former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson as a ‘bulldozer’. 

Mr Barnier was also EU Commissioner and has been staunchly pro-European for his entire career.