President Emmanuel Macron put an end to two months of suspense on Thursday and appointed conservative Michel Barnier as France's new prime minister. The last few weeks have been marked by consultations, the dance of names and the doubts of a president who was looking for a candidate who was not radically opposed to his policy but who was not part of his political party. That he would give the new Executive “a scent of cohabitation” – as the coexistence of a president and a prime minister of different political colors is called – as sources from the Elysée have repeated in recent days.
Finally, Macron decided by the former European Commissioner of the Gaullist right and asked him to “form a unity government to serve the country.” The president said that the politician met “the conditions of stability and the broadest possible consensus,” but this decision sparked strong criticism from the left, which emerged victorious from the legislative elections, and denounced a “denial of democracy.” That same Thursday, the official transfer of power to Barnier from his predecessor, the Macronist Gabriel Attal, took place at the Matignon Palace.