Will parliament back Barnier as French PM?

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00:00I'd like to bring in our French politics editor Mark Perlman. Mark, finally we have a name,

00:04Michel Barnier, a 73-year-old former Brexit negotiator who's been named. Your reactions,

00:10and is this choice going to be palatable? Let's hope so, because it lasted for a very,

00:16very long time before we finally get an appointment coming through this statement

00:23from the Élysée Palace with the elections. The second round of the election was two months ago,

00:29and so it lasted really a very long time. The big question is obviously, first, yes,

00:36we have a prime minister, then you have to have a government, and then it has to have,

00:42if not a majority, at least not a majority against him and his government in parliament. And that

00:48has been the reason why it's been so difficult for Emmanuel Macron to make his mind, because

00:55he tried a few names with the other blocks of the parliament, the left, the far right,

01:03to see if they would not vote against him. And this is the reason why yesterday's favourite,

01:09Xavier Bertrand, was rejected, because clearly it was not acceptable for the national rally,

01:18because Xavier Bertrand had been an enemy for years of the national rally. Michel Barnier,

01:24clearly there was a discussion between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen. Emmanuel Macron probably

01:30tested the name of Michel Barnier. He probably asked Marine Le Pen, will you vote a motion of

01:36no confidence against Michel Barnier with the left? The left will obviously do so, because

01:42for them he is the enemy, they feel that they won the election, so for them this is a betrayal of

01:48the popular vote. And clearly Marine Le Pen indicated, and we've been told since this morning,

01:54that she would not vote outright a motion of no confidence against Michel Barnier, essentially

02:01giving him a shot at possibly voting a budget, because this is what's on the very near horizon.

02:09The vote of the budget is supposed to happen on October 1st, and it's supposed to have started,

02:15the process for voting a budget should have started a few weeks ago, it hasn't started,

02:20so clearly the clock is ticking. Just one final comment, we're going from the youngest Prime

02:26Minister of the Fifth Republic to the oldest Prime Minister by far, actually, a 73-year-old.

02:34Michel Barnier has been a politician for a very long time, he was very proud for years to be the

02:39youngest member of the French National Assembly, but it was back in 1978.

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