Michel Barnier, the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator, has been appointed by French President Emmanuel Macron as the country’s new prime minister, after months of delays.

Barnier is a member of the Republicans party, representing the traditional right, so his appointment has provoked outrage among the parties of the left that secured the strongest number of votes in the recent election (CNN).

Jean-Luc Melenchon, of the leftist France Unbowed party, delivered a stinging rebuke of Macron, accusing him of “stealing” the parliamentary elections held in July.

“The president has just officially denied the results of the legislative elections that he himself had called for. He (Barnier) is a member, among others, of a party which was last in the legislative election. The election was therefore stolen from the French people,” Melenchon remarked in a televised speech.

France’s far-right National Rally is now one of the largest parties in parliament, and has previously suggested it could be open to working with Barnier and would not immediately veto him.

However, National Rally politician Laurent Jacobelli spoke disparagingly of Barnier, saying: “They are taking out of mothballs those who have governed France for 40 years.”