PARIS — He looks the part. Michel Barnier, the former French cabinet minister and longtime EU political fixture, could easily be plucked by Hollywood casting agents to play the role of European Commission president.
Whether he gets the job in the coming days is a question too complex for any movie script — or news article. Insiders in Brussels, for example, are now busy debating the risks of abandoning a system that is described only with a virtually untranslatable German word spitzenkandidaten.
Still, If Barnier emerges from the scrum, it would be a fitting culmination for a skilled operator whose most recent posting was as leader of the EU’s team negotiating with the UK over the terms of Brexit. French President Emmanuel Macron, for one, is betting that the white-haired Barnier possesses the right mix of diplomatic and technocratic skills to succeed Europe’s outgoing top executive Jean-Claude Juncker in what is a crucial position in a particularly shaky political context.
FLASH BIO
Place of Birth: La Tronche, France
Date of Birth: January 9, 1951 (age 68)
Education: He graduated from ESCP Europe business school in 1972, and was a classmate of former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin.
Career: A French Parliament member from 1978 to 1993, he went on to serve as Minister of Environment, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture. He made his mark in Brussels in 1999 when he was appointed European Commissioner for Regional Policy, before moving on in 2010 as European Commission for Internal Market and Services, and finally in 2016 to lead the EU’s negotiating team for Brexit.
GAULLIST ROOTS, OLYMPIC HEIGHTS
Barnier knew very early he had politics in his blood. As a 14-year-old high school student, he joined a youth group campaigning for the reelection of French Resistance leader and conservative President Charles de Gaulle — and he did it behind the back of his leftist mother. That Gaullist profile to make French national sovereignty and unity the overriding priority has guided him ever since.
After rising up in regional politics, the dapper young Barnier worked with the legendary skier Jean-Claude Killy to organize 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, the last time the Games were hosted in France before they return to Paris in 2024.
