As first reported by Playbook Paris, Barnier was at the Elysée Palace late Wednesday, according to three persons with knowledge of talks who, like others quoted in this story, were granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter.
The appointment of Barnier, who is a familiar figure in Brussels but less known at home, would end a nearly two-month-long search that has paralyzed the government since this summer’s snap election ended with a hung parliament. A caretaker government has run France since July.
Barnier appears to tick all of Macron’s boxes. As a conservative grandee, he would garner the support the right-wing Les Républicains party, but, at 73 years old, he would not rival younger allies with presidential ambitions.
Crucially, the far-right National Rally might abstain from voting him out, at least in the short term, a development that would give Barnier some margin to maneuver but also propel Marine Le Pen’s party as the kingmakers of any future government.
On Thursday, far-right lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy slammed Barnier as “a fossil that has been fossilized by politics” who “has done nothing but fail even on the EU stage.” But Tanguy refrained from saying that his party would automatically support a motion of no-confidence against him.
Barnier, who was an unsuccessful candidate in the primary to become the conservative presidential candidate in 2021, is also seen as having views on domestic politics that are more compatible with the far right. The former European commissioner has in the past called for a moratorium on immigration. He triggered a media firestorm when he said France should regain its “legal sovereignty” and not be subject to the judgments of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights.