(Paris) The popular Minister of Education Gabriel Attal became on Tuesday at 34 the youngest head of government in the history of the French Republic, the first openly homosexual too, following a ministerial reshuffle supposed to give a new lease of life to the presidency of Emmanuel Macron.
“Dear Gabriel Attal, I know I can count on your energy and your commitment to implement the rearmament and regeneration project that I announced”, in a spirit of “surpassing and (d)audacity”, praised the French head of state on
First hoped for on Monday evening, this appointment, made official by the Élysée, took very long hours to take place. A delay which fueled speculation about possible internal resistance.
Three years before the end of his second term, the head of state finds himself in a delicate situation faced with the continued breakthrough of the extreme right in the country and the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
Since his re-election in 2022, Macron has also faced growing discontent which has manifested itself during the adoption of pension reform, and more recently a very controversial law on immigration.
Described as a “good student”, or even as “the best incarnation of Macronist DNA”, Gabriel Attal, who entered the government in 2018 and who experienced a spectacular rise, finally imposed himself to everyone’s surprise to succeed Élisabeth Borne in Matignon, after the resignation of the latter Monday late afternoon.
Precarious balance
A Macronist from the start, the new prime minister, who makes no secret of his homosexuality, had become the most popular figure in the government and the majority, convincing one in two French people, while more than a third of they called for his nomination to Matignon in a recent study.
In France, the president in principle sets the broad guidelines for the five-year term, while his prime minister, responsible for implementing the program and the day-to-day management of the government, generally pays the price in the event of turbulence.
After days of suspense and persistent rumors about an imminent departure, Élisabeth Borne, 62, finally had to leave her post. A starter several times during her 20 months at Matignon, she had demonstrated her resilience by succeeding in passing difficult laws and overcoming nearly thirty motions of censure in the Assembly.
The choice of his successor is far from neutral in maintaining the precarious balance of the presidential camp, recently undermined by divisions on the immigration law, while many fear a new shift to the right of the executive.
After two terms, Emmanuel Macron will not be able to run again in 2027 and a crucial issue will be to prevent the figurehead of the far right, Marine Le Pen, from accessing the presidency.
“Code breaker”
For constitutionalist Benjamin Morel, the choice of this personality also symbolizes a “very offensive strategy with a view to the European elections” in June, where the far right is expected to win in France.
Gabriel Attal embodies “youth, ambition, it evokes a little in the background the Macron of the departure, a code breaker”, according to political scientist Bruno Cautres, even if his appointment “will not solve the problem of the majority” nor that of the “main mandate cap”.
“Gabriel Attal, the new Macron”, asked the weekly Le Point (right) last September.
During his time at the Ministry of the Budget, Gabriel Attal’s media ease allowed him to be one of the rare ministers sent to the front line to defend the unpopular pension reform.
At the head of the prestigious portfolio of National Education since July 2023, the young, omnipresent minister is seducing the elderly populations who constitute the heart of the Macronist electorate with his positions in favor of the uniform or the ban on abaya at school.
Gabriel Attal is the fourth prime minister appointed since 2017 under the Macron presidency, regularly accused by his detractors of concentrating powers and micromanaging.
“Attal regains his position as spokesperson” for the government, a position he had also occupied during Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term, quipped Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical left, on of prime minister disappears. The presidential monarch governs alone with his court,” he further denounced.