After months of political deadlock, French President Emmanuel Macron appointed former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister on Thursday (5 September).

Barnier faces the challenge of forming a government in a fractured parliament, where the far-right party Rassemblement National holds key influence. His immediate tasks include avoiding a vote of no confidence and setting a unified policy agenda – marking the end of the political standoff but the start of new challenges.

To understand how Emanuel Macron reached this decision, who the new PM is, and what the reactions were, we spoke with our Paris-based reporter, Théo Bourgery-Gonse.