President Emmanuel Macron has named the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime minister.

The announcement came on Thursday after more than 50 days of caretaker government.

The appointment of the 73-year-old Barnier follows weeks of intense efforts by Macron and his aides to find a candidate who might be able to build loose groupings of backers in parliament and survive possible attempts by Macron’s opponents to quickly topple the new government that Barnier will now put together and lead.

A statement from Macron’s office announcing Barnier’s appointment said he had been tasked “with forming a unifying government to serve the country and the French people”.