Gabriel Attal: Meet France’s youngest prime ministerhttps://en.majalla.com/node/308211/profiles/gabriel-attal-meet-france%E2%80%99s-youngest-prime-minister
A constitutional perk enjoyed by all modern French presidents is the right to dump his prime minister when in need of a fresh start.
So Emmanuel Macron’s decision on 8 January to eject Elisabeth Borne, after little over 18 months in the job, was abrupt but not very surprising. Far more so was her replacement: Gabriel Attal, the 34-year-old education minister. Mr Attal will become modern France’s youngest prime minister.
The decision, announced on 9 January, is an attempt by Mr Macron to reset his troubled second term. Mr Attal is a daring rather than a safe choice, and one that carries its own risks.
The education minister is younger than Mr Macron was when he first won election to the presidency in 2017, at the age of 39. Even Laurent Fabius, the youngest modern French prime minister to date, was 37 when nominated.
The education minister is younger than Mr Macron was when he first won election to the presidency in 2017, at the age of 39. Even Laurent Fabius, the youngest modern French prime minister to date, was 37 when nominated.
Distinct rejuvenation
It marks a distinct rejuvenation of French politics. Jordan Bardella, who is leading Marine Le Pen's hard-right National Rally at elections to the European Parliament in June, is 28. Mr Macron and Mr Attal have a combined age lower than that of America's Joe Biden.
Youth in Mr Attal's case does not mean inexperience, but this has been crammed into a short and rapid ascent. Mr Attal was also briefly budget minister under Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister, and was a government spokesman when his telegenic ease in public debates first made him a household name. In 2022 he was re-elected as a deputy in the Paris region. Mr Attal also happens to be openly gay, having made this public in 2018.
French President Emmanuel Macron on January 9, 2024, named education minister Gabriel Attal as PM in a bid to give new momentum to his presidency, with the 34-year-old becoming the youngest and first openly gay head of government.
A mini-Macron
Politically, Mr Attal is a sort of mini-Macron, and was one of the first supporters of Mr Macron's original political party, En Marche, in 2016.
Like Mr Macron, who was a former minister in a Socialist government, Mr Attal hails from the moderate social-democratic left. He served as an adviser to the health minister under François Hollande, then the Socialist president.
Also like Mr Macron in his early days, Mr Attal combines this with an appeal to the political right. In his short spell as education minister Mr Attal won praise on the right for banning in schools the wearing of the abaya, a long flowing Muslim robe, under French secular rules.
Above all, Mr Attal brings a degree of popularity that Mr Macron's current team is sorely lacking. A poll in December made Mr Attal the most popular French politician, with a rating of 40%, 13 points above that for Mr Macron, and ahead of both Ms Le Pen (37%) and Mr Bardella (36%).
A poll in December made Mr Attal the most popular French politician, with a rating of 40%, 13 points above that for Mr Macron, and ahead of both Ms Le Pen (37%) and Mr Bardella (36%).
The president will be hoping that this will inject some enthusiasm ahead of the European elections, and help to reduce the crushing poll lead currently held by National Rally.
The trouble for Mr Macron, however, is that no amount of youthful energy and public charm will change the underlying problem: how to continue to reform France, and take difficult decisions while running a minority government.
Mr Macron wants to push ahead with further labour-market reforms, in order to boost employment. Mr Le Maire promises to curb public spending.
Neither policy will be popular. Nor will Mr Attal's nomination render the right-wing opposition Republicans, or any other party, any more willing to work with him in a formal coalition. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the left-wing opposition party Unsubmissive France, denounced the appointment.
"Attal returns to his position as spokesman. The office of prime minister disappears. The presidential monarch governs alone with his court."
Faced with unruly opposition parties on the left and right, the diligent and technocratic Ms Borne did what she could.
Newly appointed Prime minister Gabriel Attal listens to the speech of outgoing Prime minister Elisabeth Borne during the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, on January 9, 2024.
Macron takes gamble
After a difficult year in 2023, marked by street protests, a week of summer riots and parliamentary chaos over an immigration bill, Mr Macron is keen to turn the page. He is taking a gamble with Mr Attal, not least because he may well steal the president's limelight.
If the new prime minister gets it right he could, possibly, use the job as a stepping stone to try to succeed his boss, who is constitutionally barred from running for a third term in 2027.
But Mr Attal's nomination will irk other potential successors from the broad centre. And under the fifth republic only two former prime ministers, Georges Pompidou and Jacques Chirac, have gone on to win the presidency—neither of them immediately after holding the top government job.
