French PM Michel Barnier has operation for ‘lesion’ on neck

PARIS — French Prime Minister Michel Barnier underwent an operation for a “lesion” on his neck over the weekend, his doctor said in a statement shared by his office on Monday.

“Everything went very well,” the statement read. The results of the procedure are expected “within a few weeks.”

The statement said Barnier had a “cervical lesion,” implying that it was found on the upper portion of his neck known as the cervical spine.

Barnier has since resumed work and plans to make his next public appearance on Thursday, according to the statement. The 73-year-old is the oldest prime minister in the history of France’s fifth republic.

Barnier’s office did not specify why he needed to undergo an operation.

High-ranking politicians in France are not required to make health conditions public, and some leaders have declined to disclose major illnesses while in office. George Pompidou died five years into his term in 1974 from a rare blood cancer he had not disclosed, while François Mitterand announced in 1992 that he was suffering from prostate cancer — which he had been diagnosed with more than a decade before.

This story has been updated