Renamed in Brussels, the candidate for presidential ballot is favorite in his party but little known outside.
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His voice, sweet and monocorde, is stifled by the mask. The boss of the unicorn is beautiful, he does not hear Michel Barnier who came to visit his brewery on Friday, October 22 in Saverne (Bas-Rhin), near Strasbourg. Sleeve silhouette, impeccable costume and silver hair, the candidate for the nomination of the party Republicans listens, applied, this “father brewer in son” to speak starch and cereals. Starting, he crosses two employees. “I visited your business, the Savoyard, nice and pro!
– You have tasted our beers, so?, Diggy.
– Oh, I do not have to drink too …, you know! “, Barnier smiled.
Employees launch an forbidden look. The guest understands that he must arise: “Michel Barnier, candidate for the Presidency of the Republic.” His interlocutors shall go down his eyes, then escape: “Oh,” it’s not Zemmour, the candidate? “
Little known in France, never enjoying a great aura in his political family, the former Brexit negotiator has the path to make before the Congress of LR which will designate his candidate on December 4th. He installed his HQ just behind the Elysée, and entrusted the direction of his campaign in the old councilor of Jacques Chirac, Marie-Claire Carrère-Gée, seconded by a core of parliamentarians, including Brigitte Kuster, Arnaud Danjean, Patrick Hetzel , François CORNUT-Nice, Olivier Marleix, or the Treasurer of the Party, Daniel Fasquelle. The mayor of Meaux Jean-François Cope, who must receive it on Monday, could announce his support, too.
Michel Barnier wants to believe that his long experience in the arcana of power is a master asset: elected younger General Adviser de France at 22, in 1973; Benjamin of deputies; younger President of the Departmental Council of Savoie; Four times minister (environment, in 1993, European affairs, in 1995, foreign affairs in 2004, agriculture, in 2007); Twice European Commissioner; and negotiator of Brexit. Without forgetting his first fact of arms, of which he continues to refer to thirty years later, the organization of the Albertville Olympics in 1992. “He checks all the boxes, summarizes the deputy LR François CORNUT-NIXLE. People Look for a presidential figure, it can embody it. “
Approached for Matignon
The Brexit agreement has weighed heavily in his decision to appear in the presidential election in France, that he has left fifteen years for the benefit of the Brussels Technostructure. The attendance of the Heads of State and the Government of the EU, rubbed up with four years in the European Council, would have remained very complex, according to his relatives. Barnier even applauded – a rarity – by the 27, who rented his art of consensus, patience and tenacity. In the corridors of the Austere Berlaymont, even the very provocative Hungarian President Viktor Orban appreciates it: “The only French of this level that tells us hello.” “It’s a good negotiator, inclusive, it was very close to us , confirms the Secretary of State for European Affairs Clement Beaune. He has acquired a certain stature and did not want to hang up the crampons. “
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