The ally said there is a “a vacuum effect” at the top.
A centrist parliamentary adviser said that Macron’s advisers are feeling the effects of Barnier’s new regime too. “[They] have lost 50 percent of their work and have been removed from cross-ministry meetings,” the adviser said.
Macron appointed Barnier, the European Union’s former chief Brexit negotiator, as his prime minister in early September to break the political deadlock that followed a snap election over the summer. That contest delivered big wins for the left and far right, but with no political force nearing an absolute majority, a fractured parliament emerged.
Macron’s choice of a veteran conservative prime minister means he is now in the strange position of sharing power with the right, even if Barnier’s government includes some of the president’s centrist allies.
As reported by POLITICO last week, the French president dismissed the freshly appointed Cabinet as “not [his] government.”
Macron has in the past struggled to let go of his top-down management style, often sidelining his prime ministers and getting heavily involved in resolving crises on domestic issues. The new division of power has rattled the president, a government adviser said. “When you change habits, it upsets, it unsettles, it can give you vertigo,” the adviser said.