Amazement in Paris and Brussels after Barnier's criticism of European justice

He who suffered from a lack of visibility ... Michel Barnier, LR candidate for the right-wing primary, much appreciated by activists but less known to the general public, caused amazement by criticizing European justice ... a few months after negotiating Brexit.

Let's rewind 24 hours to figure it out.

Thursday, during the parliamentary days of the Les Républicains party in Nîmes, the former minister said: "We cannot do all this without having regained our legal sovereignty, by being permanently threatened with a judgment or a conviction of the European Court of Justice or the Convention on Human Rights, or an interpretation of our own judicial institution.

The former European commissioner, whose role was unanimously hailed during the negotiations between London and the EU, also promised if he was elected a referendum to allow France to regain its "freedom of maneuver" in matters immigration.

"As a candidate for a primary he would deny what he defended?

"

This Friday, the French Secretary of State for European Affairs Clément Beaune, questioned by the Politico site, seemed to fall from the cupboard: "How can such a sentence have been uttered by such a committed European?" ". “As European Brexit negotiator, @ MichelBarnier defended tooth and nail the primacy of the Court of Justice of the EU and the ECHR. Or at least we hope so, ”tweeted in the same vein MEP Nathalie Loiseau, from the majority of President Emmanuel Macron. "As a candidate for a primary he would deny what he defended? He who has always given value to the word given? She added.

Michel Barnier, who cannot be suspected of ignoring the subject, tweeted in turn on Thursday evening, claiming to only advocate this for migration policy.

The fact remains that it has also aroused outside France a wave of amazement by calling for more "legal sovereignty" precisely on the issue of migration, calling for a "flattening out of all abuses", including in family reunification.

“What hypocrisy!

"

“Unheard of comments from Michel Barnier.

These statements discredit the enormous work he did in Brussels as European commissioner and then as EU negotiator on Brexit, ”declared the president of the Group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Iratxe Garcia Perez.

On the other hand, his statements were the delight of those who hold a hard line in London against the EU, Michel Barnier having campaigned during the Brexit negotiations for an important role for the European Court of Justice in the implementation of the divorce agreement.

" Breathtaking !

What hypocrisy!

The same Michel Barnier who was trying to demean the United Kingdom by demanding control over our courts and our borders… ”, said Conservative MP Michael Manufacturer.