A few days after the appointment of Gabriel Attal as Prime Minister, franceinfo is interested in the point of view of our European neighbors. In Germany, Italy and Brussels, our correspondents describe the situation on site.
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In Germany and Italy, observers generally comment on the appointment of Gabriel Attal in the same way as in France. They are for the most part reassured by the continuum of relations between the partner countries and understand the government’s shift to the right as a counterweight in view of the European elections, in the face of Jordan Bardella’s success in the polls. In the European Parliament, it was the arrival of Stéphane Séjourné at Foreign Affairs which attracted attention, with comments focusing on the new minister’s trips to kyiv, Berlin and Warsaw.
Gabriel Attal hailed as a factor of stability for the Germans
The German press recognizes in Gabriel Attal a “political prodigy, endowed with brilliant rhetoric and a certain nerve”writing Die Welt; the Spiegel sees in him “a professional despite his 34 years”, “which will give new impetus to Emmanuel Macron’s mandate”add the South German Zeitung. Regarding the reshuffle, commentators see the retention of four of the government’s heavyweights (Bruno Le Maire, Gérald Darmanin, Éric Dupond-Moretti and Sébastien Lecornu) as proof of political stability. But they note “the move to the right”embodied in particular by the one that no one saw coming, Rachida Dati, “icon of the Sarkozy era”Write the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, “deliciously insolent, a war catch in the Republican camp”notes the Parisian correspondent of South German Zeitung.
With this new French government, Germany does not really expect any changes in its relations with its French neighbor, nor on France’s action at the European level. “In matters of French domestic and foreign policy, it is the president who sets the course”, recalls the DPA press agency. With Gabriel Attal, Emmanuel Macron is instead preparing for “great political challenge of the year”, the European elections, believes Die Zeit. Gabriel Attal against Jordan Bardella for the RN, the press considers the dramaturgy fascinating. But she also sees further, to 2027, wondering if Emmanuel Macron is preparing his succession. “Caution”tempers Die Weltthe bet is risky, the three years which separate us from the presidential election are an eternity when you occupy the thankless position of Prime Minister.
Italy watches fallout from European elections
In Italy, it was first of all the admitted homosexuality of the new Prime Minister which caught the attention of many Italian media. “He is young, gay and anti-Salvini”, headlined La Repubblica, a center-left daily, the day after his appointment. Three days later, the newspaper returned to the subject, with a photo of Gabriel Attal with Stéphane Séjourné on the front page: “He names his ex as minister.” If the Prime Minister is described as anti-Salvini, it is because Italians remember that in 2018, the young spokesperson for En Marche said that the migration policy of Matteo Salvini, then Minister of the Interior , was “to vomit”.
As for the image of the new government, the Italian press notes that Emmanuel Macron has moved “even further to the right”, according to il Fatto Quotidiano, a newspaper close to the left-wing populists of Five Stars. Like many, il Fatto retains the nomination of Rachida Dati. “It’s Sarkozy who sent me“, “Dati or the minister who turns politics into a show“… There is general agreement that the turn to the right is intended to counter Marine le Pen. Moreover, La Repubblica was interested in Jordan Bardella’s press conference on Monday, noting small signs of rapprochement between the National Rally and Giorgia Meloni. One of the questions here, before the European elections, concerns the position of Giorgia Meloni: will she move closer to the center or stay in the orbit of the extreme right?
Stéphane Séjourné has already shown in Brussels the priority given to a united Europe
Among the surprises of the reshuffle, the appointment of Stéphane Séjourné to Foreign Affairs did not go unnoticed in Brussels. European partners know him well since he was president of the centrist group in the Strasbourg Parliament. And they have already seen the new minister at work; he, after booking his first trip to Ukraine, also went to Berlin and Warsaw.
Stéphane Séjourné at the Quai d’Orsay is partly a surprise for France’s European partners, because we expected to see him on the front line to lead the European election campaign. This is good, since among the comments heard in Parliament, Stéphane Séjourné often seemed less comfortable as a tribune than in individual relationships. He is praised here for his abilities as a good compromise negotiator, as we saw on the restoration of nature or the Asylum and Migration Pact.
As for European capitals, we see more continuity than change in his appointment. Europeans know that Stéphane Séjourné is close to the president and also know the control of the Élysée over the guidelines of French foreign policy. In this case, the visit of the new minister to Berlin confirms the Franco-German axis as the pivot of French policy towards the EU, especially since Stéphane Séjourné has insisted that Europe would be his priority . His visit to kyiv and Warsaw also confirms in the eyes of Europeans the EU’s existential concern regarding the war in Ukraine.