00:00Michel Barnier has promised to respond to the anger of the people in his first speech
00:06as Prime Minister of France. Speaking at the handover ceremony with his predecessor Gabriel
00:12Attal in Paris, Barnier said his new role would concentrate on fixing a raft of problems
00:17causing resentment among French voters.
00:21It will be about responding as much as we can to the challenges, to the anger, as you
00:30mentioned, to the suffering, to the feeling of abandonment, of injustice that crosses
00:40our cities, our neighbourhoods and our countrysides.
00:44President Emmanuel Macron named Barnier as France's new Prime Minister on Thursday, hoping
00:49the veteran Conservative can work with the country's bitterly divided legislature. Barnier's
00:55appointment ends more than 50 days of a caretaker government in France, and he faces the tough
01:00task of having to work with an acrimonious and deeply divided hung parliament that emerged
01:05from a snap election Macron called in June.
01:09With Michel Barnier in Matignon as Prime Minister, the President remains clearly in power. He
01:19is not challenged by his Prime Minister. The extreme moderation, conciliatory character
01:29of his Prime Minister is a plus.
01:32He's a loyal veteran of the recently renamed right-wing Republican Right Party and has
01:37had a long political career in France and the EU. He served twice as European Commissioner
01:43and between 2016 and 2021 was the chief EU negotiator for Brexit. Barnier will now have
01:50to survive a confidence vote in the National Assembly, France's lower house of parliament.
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