What a turn-up for the books. Barnier did poorly in his campaign to be presidential nominee for Les Republicans. Now PM. - ThreadSky

johnspringford.bsky.social • 179 days ago

What a turn-up for the books. Barnier did poorly in his campaign to be presidential nominee for Les Republicans. Now PM.

Reposted from Lewis Goodall

NEW: Former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has been appointed French prime minister, following months of deadlock after the French snap parliamentary elections.

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johnspringford.bsky.social•179 days ago

Competent Brexit negotiator, but to be honest the British hand was so weak that anyone could've done well there.

stephenkb.bsky.social•179 days ago

Genuine question: was he? The backstop was quite a big thing to give away, and he sort of got away with it because much of the UK political class didn’t realise what they had.

martinsandbu.ft.com•179 days ago

How did he give it away? Most of it was turned into a frontstop by Johnson.

keriothe.bsky.social•179 days ago

He gave it to May, Johnson gave it back!

rafaelbehr.bsky.social•179 days ago

I think (maybe misremembering here) that was one time when member state govts nudged commission to get a deal. Pretty sure Barnier didn't like backstop.

aphclarkson.bsky.social•179 days ago

Iirc people around Sabine Weyand saw the backstop as the start of a process to land the UK in a more stable CUish position over a decade than the end of the matter

alasdairmsmith.bsky.social•179 days ago

And unfortunately the Brexiteers saw it the same as @sabineweyand.bsky.social

stephenkb.bsky.social•179 days ago

My recollection also. It really was a genuine “I’m not sure”, in that it was a sufficiently good deal given what the average Brexit voter wanted with a high enough level of market access that can see how it might have become enduring, had UK political class realised what they had been given.

willcooling.bsky.social•179 days ago

willcooling.bsky.social•179 days ago

But wasn't also the case that at crunch points Barnier kinda got sidelined in favour of people actually from the Commission, including Weyand, who could better handle the detail of the negotiating?

jrowanbxl.bsky.social•179 days ago

I don't know about sidelined, I think you'd expect a lot of the detail to have been done at Weyand / Robbins level. I think Barnier is generally considered to have done a good job holding up the political end of the EU's negotiation (including endless bilateral engagement with Member States).

jamesdaustin.bsky.social•179 days ago

That seems to be the story I've read in various Brexit books.

The EU not realising just how chaotic the UK position was, and the UK not realising how big a concession it had been given

johnspringford.bsky.social•179 days ago

I think the EU would've been fine with a customs union, though. The problem was getting there. They certainly thought May was better than the alternative PMs.

miklosgyalog.bsky.social•179 days ago

However, the backstop gave us this absolute gem on a consistently banging album.

https://open.spotify.com/track/5p0N2Q5IupDdjYIu5Lkd9Y?si=WsQaaioARre96U8rjI1MWw&context=spotify%3Aalbum%3A5FnvU0cEgFU81QwIgWzjeF

pickle1805.bsky.social•179 days ago

I do think the U.K. looked a major gift horse in the mouth - but don’t think Barnier was wrong to offer it. It held out the prospect (or seemed to) of limiting the damage to the U.K. of what it had said it wanted to do. And it could have preserved EU interests in having a wider CU and SM.

johnspringford.bsky.social•179 days ago

Alexander's right here, I think https://bsky.app/profile/aphclarkson.bsky.social/post/3l3frawk6ke22

philipjtaylor.bsky.social•179 days ago

His lever arches were more than a match for David Davis' glasses' case.

andrewwatteu.bsky.social•179 days ago

But will he get a majority?

captaineurope.bsky.social•179 days ago

Tbf he’s much more Prime Ministerial (in the French context) than presidential. I think he’s a good choice for chairing meetings of a potentially fractious cabinet and building consensus. Giving speeches to party congresses and TV audiences? Not so much.

jazzaoxon.bsky.social•179 days ago

He didn't have to be ennobled, like Cameron was, to be Foreign Secretary. Michel Barnier will fulfil his ambition to be in government. Vive la République! 🇨🇵

krncrty.bsky.social•177 days ago

He did well enough not to be a threat to Macron and two years after the election to be appointed PM. How long he will be PM is undermined but I suspect he won’t last long.

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