EDITORIAL. Gabriel Attal or the obsession with authority

Traveling to Essonne on Thursday, the Prime Minister promised a rapid response from his government to the “addiction to violence” of part of the youth.

Gabriel Attal launched a vast consultation on violence among minors on Thursday April 18 by announcing a battery of measures. The Prime Minister was traveling in Essonne, mourning a recent tragedy, the death of a teenager beaten to death near a school, and for Gabriel Attal, it was a trip to familiar territory: education and authority, the two breasts of the nascent attalism that he has cultivated since his brief stay on rue de Grenelle. Placements in boarding schools, questioning of the excuse of minority, sanction of defaulting parents, a whole series of very concrete announcements supposed to respond to the two imperatives set by Gabriel Attal during his appointment: to demonstrate common sense and obtain results quickly. A well-established exercise which also underlines the two limits he faces after 100 days at Matignon.

By dint of bracing himself on this theme of authority, he runs the risk of finding himself confined, even caricatured, in this role of “survivor”, or of super-minister of Education, enriched with a panoply of policeman. Certainly, it is on this theme of authority, illustrated by the ban on the abbaya at school, that Gabriel Attal forged his political credibility. But is this facet alone enough to shape the identity of a Prime Minister? Not sure.

An action without impact on Europeans

For the moment, this posture is not enough to slow down the progression of the far right. This is also the mission assigned to him upon his appointment. Many in the majority then considered that Gabriel Attal represented the anti-Bardella weapon par excellence. Three months later, the weapon jammed. The National Rally list is leading the polls and widening the gap over the majority. More surprisingly, Gabriel Attal maintains a very good personal popularity rating, without this benefiting Valérie Hayer’s list which is declining. As if, by dint of managing his destiny, Gabriel Attal had managed to free himself from the handicaps of his camp. Hence the temptation not to get too wet in the European campaign. Next Thursday, it is Emmanuel Macron who will find himself, in fact, on the front line by delivering a major speech on Europe at the Sorbonne. It remains to be seen whether Gabriel Attal would manage to emerge unscathed from a heavy failure of the majority on June 9. On the contrary, a debacle would risk weakening, or even shortening, its lease in Matignon.