who are the advisors who will surround him at Matignon?

Who will make up Gabriel Attal’s team? The new Prime Minister, appointed Tuesday January 9 to replace Elisabeth Borne, wasted no time in starting to surround himself with Matignon. He took with him his close guard, made up in particular of a squad of loyal advisors, nicknamed his “power rangers” or the “fantastic four” by Gabriel Attal. To head up the team, the new head of government will also be assisted by a cabinet director from the right, Emmanuel Moulin. Franceinfo looks at the entourage of the second person in the State, the first names having been published in the Official Journal on Thursday, a few hours before the announcement of the new government.

Emmanuel Moulin, a cabinet director close to Bruno Le Maire

The chief of staff is one of the most strategic positions around the Prime Minister, since he is responsible for the overall coordination of the files that arrive on his table, a crucial function at the head of a bloated team. Gabriel Attal’s new chief of staff is named Emmanuel Moulin. The enarch and senior civil servant, aged 55, had been director of the Treasury since November 2020. If the former Minister of National Education comes from the left, his right arm comes… from the right, with a profile very focused on economic and financial issues. “Given the issues, particularly the recovery of public finances, I find this interesting and reassuring,” confided to the newspaper THE Echoes the president of Medef Patrick Martin.

The man trained at the best schools (IEP Paris, Essec, ENA), before starting his career at the prestigious Treasury Department in Bercy, as his online CV shows. He will become director general of the institution at the end of 2020, after several experiences in prestigious institutions such as the World Bank or the Paris Club. After a stint in Christine Lagarde’s office in Bercy in 2007, Emmanuel Moulin joined the Elysée in 2009, as advisor to the president at the time, Nicolas Sarkozy. He is also close to Bruno Le Maire, whose cabinet he headed at the Ministry of the Economy between 2017 and 2020, and to Alexis Kohler, secretary general of the Elysée. Both have been in office since Emmanuel Macron came to power.

Fanny Anor, the former chief of staff who became deputy

In Matignon, Emmanuel Moulin will form a pair with Fanny Anor. This history lecturer, until now chief of staff at the Ministry of National Education, is appointed deputy chief of staff to the new Prime Minister, according to the decree published Thursday in the Official Journal. A sign of her importance within the cabinet, during the transfer of power, she was on the steps at the same height of steps as Elisabeth Borne’s outgoing chief of staff, Jean-Denis Combrexelle. A graduate of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, she was a researcher at the Institut Montaigne, with a liberal position and classified on the right, from 2013 to 2017. “She is a specialist in education issues and also contributes to operations relating to public finances”writes the organization on its site.

Fanny Anor is the same age as the new Prime Minister, 34 years old. Since Gabriel Attal entered government in 2018, she has followed him from ministry to ministry as cabinet director. “It was nicknamed the ‘control tower’ at the beginning, because it came from Jean-Michel Blanquerconfides a former advisor to Gabriel Attal to franceinfo. She was supposed to be Moscow’s eye to keep tabs on the secretary of state. Ultimately, she was won over to Gabriel’s cause and was not for nothing in the arrival of Gabriel Attal at the Ministry of National Education.”

Maxime Cordier, chief of staff

Maxime Cordier arrives in Matignon as chief of staff and special advisor, according to the decree published in the Official Journal. The new Prime Minister chose for this post another faithful person he met on the benches of Sciences Po. At the time, the latter headed the section of the UMP (formerly Les Républicains) when Gabriel Attal was active in the Socialist Party. A debate organized at the IEP in Paris on the occasion of the 2012 presidential election shows them each defending their candidate: Nicolas Sarkozy for Maxime Cordier, François Hollande for Gabriel Attal.

“We became closer during the campaign. Neither he nor I being sectarian, we spoke to each other.”

Maxime Cordier, advisor to Gabriel Attal

at franceinfo

The two young men then crossed paths at the Ministry of Health in 2012, during the transfer of power between Marisol Touraine and Xavier Bertrand. Gabriel Attal joins the ministry as advisor to the socialist, while Maxime Cordier gives him his office. “We stayed in touch, talking politics, reacting to current events and teasing each other, me about the setbacks of François Hollande, him about the setbacks of the UMP”, told Maxime Cordier this summer to franceinfo. Then comes the En Marche adventure! and overcoming divisions. “I didn’t plan to work in the office under Emmanuel Macron, but it was done more in the name of a friendship. I came to work for Gabriel”, he argues. From 2020 and government spokesperson, Maxime Cordier advises the minister on political strategy and writes his important speeches.

Louis Jublin, in charge of communications

Since 2018, Louis Jublin has been Gabriel Attal’s communications manager. The media go through him to request interviews with the minister. According to information from franceinfo and France Inter, he should retain the same prerogatives in the Prime Minister’s office. Before joining the Attal clan, Louis Jublin worked for a time for the UMP group in the Assembly, then for the Albera Conseil group, as detailed in his online CV. “He is a friend of Gabriel Attal. He has this working method of communications advisors, which allows Gabriel Attal to prepare the questions well, to work efficiently”explains a former advisor to the Prime Minister.

Antoine Lesieur

To complete the square of the faithful, Gabriel Attal should take Antoine Lesieur with him. According to information from France Inter, the latter should be responsible for elected officials in the Prime Minister’s office, a position he already held at the Ministry of National Education. A graduate of Sciences Po Lille, the advisor has been following the minister since 2018. Chief of staff for the Universal National Service, this former socialist was also his parliamentary advisor and spokesperson. He was also general secretary of the Renaissance party in Paris. As reported by Huffpost, during his boss’s trips, he is used to collecting grievances and requests for meetings.