FRENCH left parties today rejected the appointment of former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as the country’s new prime minister and called for nationwide protests.

The appointment of Mr Barnier follows weeks of stalling by President Emmanuel Macron to find an alternative candidate to one put forward by the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) coalition, which won the most seats in July’s National Assembly election.

The NPF had nominated civil servant Lucie Castets to be prime minister.

President Macron’s office announced Mr Barnier’s appointment and said he’d been tasked “with forming a unifying government to serve the country and the French people.”

Mr Barnier was the European Union’s chief negotiator in the talks over Britain’s exit from the bloc. A rightwinger, he previously ran for president on a pledge to ban all non-European immigration for five years and says France’s priorities should be to reduce immigration and public spending, policies diametrically opposed to those on which the NPF came first in the election.

He replaces caretaker PM Gabriel Attal, who held office while Mr Macron delayed an appointment until he was able to find an alternative to Ms Castets.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, from France Unbowed, the largest party in the NPF, said Mr Barnier was a member “of a party that came last in the legislative election” (the Republicans) and it showed “the result of the election in July had been stolen by the president.”

He called for street protests on September 7 and the NPF have already vowed to table a vote of no confidence.

French Communist Party national secretary Fabien Roussel described the appointment as “a slap in the face to the French who aspire to change.”

Chair of the far-right National Rally Jordan Bardella did not immediately dismiss the appointment, saying his party would judge Mr Barnier on “his general policy speech, his budgetary decisions and his actions” over the coming weeks.