Who is France’s new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal?

Finally there was a change of government in Paris, and a very big change. Outsiders are Elisabeth Borne, who resigned on Monday, and her own government’s very young Education Minister Gabriel Attal. In this way, French President Emmanuel Macron is trying to breathe new life into his second term, which has been troubled especially in recent months.

This post is also held by 34-year-old Attal, the youngest prime minister in the history of the republic and an openly gay man. As the newspaper emphasizes, he is a true star on the rise politicaland he was an early Macronist. In 2016, Attal left the Socialist Party (which he had joined a decade earlier) to support its leader’s Elysée candidacy. La République en Marche!Promising a political revolution, he was the then Minister of Economy and was elected to the National Assembly in 2017 from the presidential ticket of the same name. Renaissance.

Already the following year, in October 2018, Attal entered the government as minister of foreign affairs for youth and became the youngest cabinet member of the Fifth Republic. He then took on the roles of government spokesperson (from July 2020 to May 2022), then Minister of Budget and finally Minister of Education since last July. He is now the fourth prime minister of Macron’s presidency and has broken another record as the youngest prime minister. prime ministers of the republic.

In short, at a time when personal approval ratings have fallen to 30% and the right to radical freedom is the breath of fresh air that the Elysée resident desperately needs. National Rally It seems that Marine Le Pen is ahead by about 10 points in the polls for the European elections to be held next June. But Attal remains at the center of media attention and recently overtook former prime minister Édouard Philippe as the most popular French politician, according to an Ipsos poll last December.

By placing Attal’s appointment in this context, we can better understand how the 34-year-old managed to “snatch” this position from heavyweights such as Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin (and Giorgia Meloni), who are passionate about immigrants. Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, even Defense Minister and Macron loyalist Sébastien Lecornu. First of all, the former had become too politically cumbersome after the short-circuit triggered by the recent immigration reform. madam It split Le Pen and Macron’s majority, leading to the current crisis.

Attal made his personal life public in 2018 when he joined the cabinet of Philippe’s government and talked about his youth. going out on live TV (at the time she was in a relationship with Stéphane Séjourné, the current leader of Renew Europe), and also admitted that she was subjected to bullying and homophobia as a teenager.

During his short tenure at the Ministry of Education, Attal introduced a ban on the wearing of the abaya, the long Islamic veil, in schools (a proposal that won favor with the parliamentary right and divided the left) and raised the difficulty level of standardized tests (like our Invalsi, so to speak). He also promoted the launch of a new civil service for young people and spoke in favor of trialling compulsory uniforms in schools. gala lady Brigitte Macron and her leader Republicans center right, Eric Ciotti.

Observers describe Attal as a political chameleon: during his militancy in the Socialist Party, he had already attracted the attention of many conservative figures, including former president Nicolas Sarkozy, who is understood to have recommended him to run in the 2027 presidential elections.

Some political opponents criticize him for always being privileged, as Attal always attended private schools. There were various cultural influences in his family: his father, Yves, a filmmaker who died in 2015, was of Tunisian Jewish descent (and part of his family had been deported during World War II), while his mother was of Russian descent and Orthodox Christian.

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