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Michel Barnier is the European Chief Negotiator for the United Kingdom Exiting the European Union and represents the EU27 in the Brexit negotiations between the UK and the EU27.

Given how the EU27 consists of 27 countries with different interests in the negotiations, did any politician from the EU27 (including MEPs and national politicians) publicly oppose appointing Barnier as Brexit negotiator for the EU?

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    "Any politician from the EU27" is a very vast category. I guess that on almost any issue there is some politician opposing it. – Trilarion Jan 22 '19 at 8:47
  • @Trilarion I hadn't really heard about any opposition to the nomination so I thought it was better to be open to many answers rather than asking a narrow question possibly eliminating the few interesting answers there are. – JJ for Transparency and Monica Jan 22 '19 at 8:50
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    "Given how the EU27 consists of 27 countries" it's possible to find a politician somewhere in one of them who opposes pretty much everything. – DJClayworth Jan 22 '19 at 13:44
  • A better question might be "name some senior EU political figures if there are any." – o.m. Jan 22 '19 at 16:37
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Perhaps not from governmental parties, but a German MEP, Hans-Olaf Henkel criticised Barmier saying that he wanted to "make a mess out of this whole unhappy situation".

Henkel represented the Eurosceptic "AfD" party and is Vice Chair of the ECR group in the European Parliament that seeks fundamental reform of the EU.

In general "Eurosceptic" and "Eurorealist" groups wanted a negotiator that would have established a precedent that it was easy to leave the EU, and one could do so while picking and choosing the economic benefits.

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    What's a "Eurorealist" group? – thosphor Jan 22 '19 at 9:44
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    @thosphor It has the looks of being an euphemism for being eurosceptic. – Stian Yttervik Jan 22 '19 at 10:13
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    @StianYttervik Which is funny considering "eurosceptic" is already an euphemism. – Cubic Jan 22 '19 at 13:42
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    That's why I put the "scare quotes" around both those terms. "Eurorealist" is a self coined term, for people who want far reaching reform of the EU (particularly in social policy) but not its actual break up. So they distiguish themselves from sceptics. Other might see them as a branch or sub group of sceptics. – James K Jan 23 '19 at 9:12

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