So farewell Michel Barnier, the man who will now be best remembered not as the suave face of the EU in the Brexit negotiations, but as the most hapless prime minister in the history of the Fifth Republic. That is assuming his successor, Francois Bayrou, isn’t ousted in under three months.
The French media has been full of stories over the weekend as to how Bayrou pressurised Macron into making him premier. The President’s first choice was his defence minister, Sébastien Lecornu, a loyalist from top to toe, who was informed of his elevation shortly after Barnier’s government had fallen.
Having worked his way through three prime ministers this year, Macron can’t afford to see a fourth come and go in a short space of time
Bayrou knew none of this. When his presence was requested at the Elysee Palace last Friday it was, he assumed, to be anointed prime minister. When he learned otherwise, there was, reportedly, a ‘heated’ exchange.
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