Former Brexit chief negotiator wants to become French President
Michel Barnier wants to challenge Emmanuel Macron in the presidential election in France in 2022.
Former EU Commissioner and Brexit chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, wants to run for the 2022 presidential election in France and thus challenge Head of State Emmanuel Macron. He announced on French television that he would run for the centre-right Les Républicains party in April.
“There are challenging and serious times ahead of us,” Barnier told TF1. “I have the right to be the president of a reconciled France.” In December, Barnier had already officially announced that he would be drawn back into French politics – but so far, the words have not been followed up with concrete actions.
The primary challenger to President Macron, who will run again for the centre party La République en Marche (LREM) in just over seven months, has so far been the right-wing populist Marine Le Pen from the Rassemblement National party (formerly: Front National). The other political blocs have yet to find their candidates, and in some cases, it will be decided in primaries who will go into the race in the end.
For the left-wing alliance La France Insoumise (Rebellious France), Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to go into the race for the presidency again; in 2012 and 2017, he landed in fourth place. A decision has yet to be made among the socialists, who, with the then-incumbent President François Hollande, were eliminated in the first round of the presidential election in 2017. A candidacy for the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, is expected in the coming weeks.