President Emanuel Macron has appointed veteran politician and official Michael Barnier as the country's Prime Minister, after a months-long standoff on the matter due to a deadlocked French Parliament.
According to France 24, Barnier - aged 73 - first entered government under Jacques Chirac in the late 1990s. He is also double the age of outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, and would be the oldest Prime Minister in the history of modern France.
Barnier is expected to take a hard line on migration, a hot button issue throughout Europe which has witnessed the rise of hard right parties in many countries, including France. During his abortive campaign for the Presidential nomination of the Republican Party, Barnier even called for an immigration moratorium.
It was the success of the hard right in the EU parliamentary elections which led President Macron to call snap ones for his own country, so Barnier's efforts will likely be closely watched throughout France.
