French President Macron Names Michel Barnier as Prime Minister

Macron selected Barnier, who represented the European Union in negotiations over the U.K.’s exit from the trading bloc.

Barnier replaces Gabriel Attal, whose centrist party lost the country’s snap election in July.

French President Emmanuel Macron named Michel Barnier as prime minister to replace Gabriel Attal after the country’s snap election in July left no party with overall control of the National Assembly.

Barnier, 73, is the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator and is affiliated with the right-wing Republican party. Attal, a 35-year-old from the centrist Renaissance party, resigned shortly after the July 8 election left the left-wing coaltion New Popular Front with the most seats in the parliament.

“This appointment comes after an unprecedented cycle of consultations during which, in accordance with his constitutional duty, the president ensured that the prime minister and the government to come would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible,” Macron’s office told Bloomberg on Thursday.

France is the second-largest economy in the 27-nation trading bloc. The EU passed wide-ranging bespoke legislation for crypto, called MiCA, last year. France opened registrations for a license under MiCA in early August.

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