PortraitThe European Union negotiator has just reached an agreement with the United Kingdom for the post-Brexit period. Several times minister in France, it is in Brussels that Michel Barnier has established himself as a leading political figure.
Finally ! After more than four years of repeated psychodramas, the Europeans and London concluded, Thursday, December 24, an agreement – approximately 1,500 pages – which will govern their relations from the 1er January 2021. “Mission accomplished, I took my part”, comments, soberly, Michel Barnier, who represented the Twenty-Seven in this negotiation “Extraordinary”. The Frenchman is not the expansive type, especially since, as he says, “Brexit is a lose-lose for everyone. I’m not going to jump for joy at the prospect ”.
It prevents. For this social Gaullist, having completed this high-risk mission is, after almost fifty years of a busy political life, revenge on all those who, including in his camp, never believed in him. . For this convinced European, who was twice Commissioner and whose photo of the handshake between General de Gaulle and Chancellor Konrad Adenauer signing the Elysée Treaty, in 1963, still adorns the office, it is a consecration. At the post of “Mr. Brexit”, “He acceded to a recognition of head of state”, Judge Clément Beaune, Secretary of State for European Affairs. And without question, he is today the Frenchman with the most successful European career since Jacques Delors, who was President of the Commission for ten years.
However, when on June 23, 2016, the British voted for “Leave”, nobody imagined attending, in the wake, the return of Mr. Barnier. “Four years ago, if you were told about Barnier, you would say: he’s retired, isn’t he? “, laughs a diplomat. But, it’s a characteristic of man, he never lets go, he always bounces back.
To relaunch his career, it therefore took Brexit
At the time, therefore, he was not at the top of the bill, no more in Brussels than in Paris. After having completed his mandate as Commissioner for the Internal Market and Financial Services at the end of 2014, and suffered a defeat in the race for the presidency of the Commission, against the Luxembourger Jean-Claude Juncker, then being refused by the UMP a nomination for the upcoming regional elections in France, Mr Barnier had been working since February 2015 as a simple defense adviser to Mr Juncker. “He walked the halls, chatting with everyone. As if he had never left Brussels ”, says Benoît Le Bret, his chief of staff when he was commissioner for regional policy (1999-2004). As if biding his time.
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