The people’s politician

Date: 23/05/1996

IN the incestuous world of Parisian politics, Michel Barnier stands apart as a self-made man.

The athletic 45-year-old minister for European affairs is one of the few senior politicians who does not owe his position to a stint at the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), the breeding ground of most of the political élite.

With deep roots in his native Savoy, Barnier managed to build a Parisian career without belonging to the intricate old-boy network which provides most of the members of France's ruling class.

Barnier, who joined the Gaullist party at the age of 13, when de Gaulle was still president and some of his contemporaries where dreaming of revolution, was barely 27 when he was elected as the youngest member of the French parliament in 1978.

In 1982, he became - and has since remained - president of his native province's Conseil Général, the regional body given influence through Socialist decentralisation, with enormous and largely uncontrolled powers in the allocation of state expenditure.

Barnier rose to national prominence in 1987, when he was elected (together with the former skiing champion Jean-Claude Killy) co-president of

the committee organising the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville.

Barnier's talent as a political survivor became apparent a year ago when Prime Minister Alain Juppé entrusted him with the important European affairs portfolio.

In the 1994-95 battle for the French presidency which pitched the then Prime Minister Edouard Balladur - in whose government Barnier served as environment minister - against the Gaullist leader Jacques Chirac, Barnier supported the losing side.

But unlike most Balladur backers, who were swiftly removed from positions of influence, Barnier managed to hold on to and even boost his political standing.

While he formally works under the authority of Foreign Minister Hervé de Charette, Barnier's position, strengthened by his role as France's chief negotiator at the Intergovernmental Conference, involves him in virtually every area of government politics and gives him direct access to the Elysée Palace.

His relationship with de Charette, meanwhile, is said to be distant at best.

Observers describe Barnier as a man who favours straightforward speech over political hedging and makes his enemies through frankness, rather than through devious manoeuvring.

“He will astonish some people by taking them aside and telling them in a very friendly way that they are wrong,” says one. “But he does not mean to attack them and can be quite surprised when they are offended.”

Barnier's deep ties to his native Savoy are mirrored by President Chirac's keen cultivation of his own regional fiefdom, the remote southwestern region of Corrèze - and have created a common bond between the two men.

Like Chirac, who enjoys saying that he never joins the elegant dinner parties which are the focus of Parisian society life, Barnier makes a point of regularly travelling around the French provinces to explain his political activities to 'ordinary citizens', an exercise which both men seem genuinely to enjoy.

During these monthly trips, Barnier, who usually takes a few journalists and officials with him, fields citizens' questions on European politics. “He really takes time to explain,” says an aide. “And he sees a lot of people that way.”

As one insider stresses, both Barnier and Chirac know how to “conciliate a national career and strong regional ties” - and the president likes the fact that Barnier has done other things, such as co-organising the Winter Olympics.

Barnier's keen interest in sport is by no means a passive one. A dedicated skier, he likes to keep fit with daily 45-minute early morning runs, which collaborators, and journalists eager for background information are sometimes invited to join. “He does not really pressure you to come with him,” explains a source. “But the suggestion that it would be good for you is definitely there.”

Barnier's penchant for taking the direct route to people and problems has enabled him to establish a strong personal rapport with like-minded colleagues, such as Germany's IGC negotiator Werner Hoyer.

Diplomats on both sides insist that the mutual understanding which emerged between the two men during their work in the Reflection Group, which prepared the ground for the IGC, is based on genuine sympathy and is not merely the fruit of political convenience.

“Both share a similar approach to the IGC, and are always keen to stress the political implications of technical issues,” says one close observer.

In choosing Barnier to lead the French team of IGC negotiators, Chirac and Juppé opted for a Gaullist politician whose pro-European credentials were above suspicion. Denying that his long-standing Gaullist convictions clash with his European persuasions, Barnier is fond of telling people that his pro-European stance goes all the way back to his adolescence, when de Gaulle and Germany's Chancellor Konrad Adenauer where laying the foundations of the Franco-German alliance.

The opportunity to go on the record as a dedicated European arose - and Barnier seized it - when the Maastricht Treaty was put to a vote in the French parliament in 1992. He was one of the few Gaullist politicians to vote for a Yes and later defend the treaty in public.

Unlike Chirac, Barnier has also established a good personal relationship with Commission President Jacques Santer. “He has convinced everybody in Paris that Santer's role needs to be strengthened,” says an insider. “The Commission president must have more authority if he is to hold the Commission together.”

According to collaborators, Barnier is deeply convinced that the IGC is a crucial exercise for the future of Europe.

“He believes it is an opportunity which will not arise again, and which has to be seized”, says one aide. “He is a man who enjoys getting people to agree, and likes to bring them together. He likes to build on a strong personal rapport.”

While Barnier, in line with French government thinking, frequently calls for an enhanced role for the Council of Ministers, insiders deny that his aim is to weaken other EU institutions

such as the Commission or Parliament in order to augment the role of the nation state.

“He thinks the Commission's efficiency should be strengthened, but its mission should not be expanded to include foreign policy,” explains one insider.

Without being a populist, Barnier is a man keen to move the European debate out of the corridors of power and into the public arena, as his frequent trips to the provinces show.

And unlike some French politicians whose technocratic excellence has been strengthened by the belief that leadership requires neither explanation nor consensus, Barnier is keen to discuss what he does.

This respect for democracy also applies to his attitude to national parliaments, which he believes should be more strongly and broadly involved in the European debate.

“Barnier has become personally involved in the IGC's success,” said one observer. “And he is doing all he can to push for its successful conclusion, both in the negotiations and at home.”