French Prime Minister Michel Barnier
Reuters
Paris: French Prime Minister Michel Barnier underwent surgery on a cervical lesion over the weekend, his doctor said in a statement shared by Barnier's office on Monday.
The operation went well and Barnier, 73, resumed work on Monday, the statement said. Results from an analysis of the lesion will be known in several weeks.
A lesion is an area of an organ or tissue that has been damaged through injury or disease, such as a wound, ulcer, abscess or tumour. A spokesperson for Barnier's office declined to comment when asked if there was any suspicion of cancer.
After weeks of struggling to find a new prime minister following a summer snap election that resulted in a deeply fragmented parliament, President Emmanuel Macron named conservative veteran Barnier to the post in early September.
Barnier's first and most pressing task has been to get a budget for 2025 approved in parliament, with the country's public finances in a dismal state.