“Baby Macron”, “openly gay”… How the foreign press reacts to the appointment of Gabriel Attal to Matignon

The new tenant of Matignon is causing a lot of talk outside our borders. The appointment, Tuesday January 9, of Gabriel Attal to the post of Prime Minister did not go unnoticed abroad, inside and outside the European Union.

If Sebastian Kurz had taken the reins of Austria at 31, the youth of Gabriel Attal, aged 34, calls out to the foreign press. His transparency about his sexual orientation and the objectives behind his appointment also come up frequently in newspaper columns. Franceinfo reviews the international media treatment of this appointment.

BBC insists on his ‘rapid rise’

The CV of the new Prime Minister, former spokesperson for the En Marche! and in place in the government organization chart in various positions since 2018, has made several newspapers say that Gabriel Attal is one of the most convinced Macronists. “Could it be that the French president is preparing his successor?”asks the German newspaper South German Zeitungcalling Gabriel Attal “Macron clone”.

But what concerns the majority of foreign titles is the age of the new head of government, in comparison with international leaders. Across the Channel, the BBC discusses the“rapid rise of a “handsome”, “full of youth”. “Ten years ago he was an obscure adviser to the Ministry of Health and an active member of the socialists”notes the British public media.

For his part, The Guardian presents Gabriel Attal as “the most recognizable face of the young politicians who gravitate around the president”. But also as a “master of communication”, “calm and careful speaker” who can however “be fierce during televised debates”. Without forgetting one of his nicknames: “Baby Macron” in reference to his political ambitions.

RTBF recalls that his “homosexuality was revealed” in 2018

In the United States, the New York Times just as the public radio channel NPR focuses on the age, but also on the sexual orientation of Gabriel Attal. Or more precisely on the fact that he publicly accepts his homosexuality, making him “the first Prime Minister [français] openly gay”. NPR recalls that the new head of government had, while he was Minister of National Education, confided on TF1 to having been the victim of school harassment and homophobic insults. From the Japanese channel NHK to RTBF, few media fail to mention the private life of Gabriel Attal, of which “homosexuality was revealed in 2018”traces the Belgian channel, which also discusses its relationship with the MEP Stéphane Séjourné.

“El Pais” believes it can “relaunch” Emmanuel Macron

Gabriel Attal is also seen as an asset for Emmanuel Macron in order to boost his second five-year term. “Attal’s mission is to lead the future government team, with which Macron hopes to emerge from the open crisis before Christmas with the immigration law.estimates the Stampa. The transalpine newspaper also unearths certain statements from Gabriel Attal, who judged in 2018 that Italian immigration policy was “disgusting”.

For El Paísnothing like the appointment of a “child prodigy” of French politics “to relaunch the presidential mandate”turning the page of the “technocrat Elisabeth Borne”. Same observation for the Singapore newspaper The Straits Timeswhich evokes “the second wind” and the “regeneration” that this appointment could offer to Emmanuel Macron, with the aim of “to improve the chances of his centrist party in the European elections in June”.

The choice of Gabriel Attal is also part of a strategy of “fight against the far-right electoral threat”estimated The Independent, “facing a dynamic Marine Le Pen”. The executive “will face the same problems as Elisabeth Borne”, warns the British daily. And to list “the rise of Marine Le Pen, a Parliament where each new law is a struggle, due to lack of majority, as well as a president, Emmanuel Macron, who does not seem to know what objective to aim for for his second term”.