what are the first challenges awaiting him at Matignon?

The new Prime Minister will not have waited before making his first trip. Appointed Tuesday January 9 at the end of the morning, Gabriel Attal went to Pas-de-Calais in the afternoon, after the transfer of power with Elisabeth Borne, to meet elected officials and residents affected by the floods. occurred last week. “I will have the objective of keeping control of our destiny and unleashing our French potential”, he also announced during his first speech. With numerous projects and the prospect of the Olympic Games this summer, the year promises to be busy in any case for the youngest head of government in the history of the Fifth Republic.

1 Form your government

Forming the government already represents a major challenge for Gabriel Attal, a Macronist from the start. This must in fact reflect the political balances of the coalition in power, with Renaissance, but also the MoDem and Horizons, the parties of François Bayrou and Edouard Philippe. He will also have to manage the future of portfolios occupied by heavyweights. Will Gérald Darmanin stay at the Ministry of the Interior? Will Bruno Le Maire, in office since 2017, continue at the Ministry of the Economy?

The fate of ministers from the left wing of the majority is also uncertain, such as Clément Beaune (Transport), Patrice Vergriete (Housing) or Rima Abdul Malak (Culture). Some within the majority are calling for sanctions against these members of the government who took a position against the immigration bill in December. One of them, Aurélien Rousseau, Minister of Health, left the executive even before the government resigned.

2 Have several texts voted on

Before being able to impose new reforms, Gabriel Attal will first inherit the projects launched by the previous government. A highly symbolic reform, the inclusion of voluntary termination of pregnancy (abortion) in the Constitution is hoped by the executive for the beginning of March via a Congress in Versailles. To meet this tight schedule, the bill must be presented to the National Assembly on January 24 before going to the Senate. To avoid another snub, it will be necessary to convince the senatorial right, the majority in the upper house, which remains skeptical on this subject. If there is agreement, the text could be adopted by Congress on March 5, three days before March 8, the date of International Women’s Day.

The end of life file must also arrive in the Hemicycle during the year. After three months of debate, the Citizens’ Convention on the end of life decided in favor of active assistance in dying, but under conditions. The government had initially announced a single law for the end of summer 2023, before postponing it several times. During an interview on France 5 on December 20, Emmanuel Macron assumed “to take the time” on this sensitive subject.

Finally, at the end of January, the government is planning a text so that the majority of energy consumed in France comes from renewable energies within ten years. Today, fossil fuels represent around 60% of French consumption, including transport in addition to electricity. For 2035, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the current Minister of Energy Transition, is aiming for the opposite: 60% carbon-free energy, then with the objective of carbon neutrality in 2050.

Gabriel Attal, the new Prime Minister, will therefore have to vote on these various texts, finding compromise majorities in a National Assembly that is still fractured.

3 Fighting for the Europeans

The deadline is on everyone’s minds, in the government, in the majority and in the opposition: on June 9, the French are called to the polls to nominate their European deputies. Like a mid-term election, did the deadline guide Emmanuel Macron’s choice to install Gabriel Attal in Matignon? “I told the president that if we didn’t change, we were going to die, we were going to lose the European elections and that would be irretrievable”explains a close friend of the president to franceinfo.

The stakes are high for the presidential camp, while the various polls show a significant gap between the National Rally and the Macronist camp. And this while the popularity of the head of the RN list, Jordan Bardella, also very young (28 years old), continues to rise. “Gabriel Attal will do us goodsupports a ministerial advisor. The President of the Republic is smart: he imposes a duel with Jordan Bardella, two young people in combat.”

4 Relaunch the five-year term

At the beginning of December, Emmanuel Macron had mentioned, without specifying the contours, a “meeting with the nation”. The initiative, which is due to launch in January, is supposed to send “a message of unity” and relaunch the second five-year term of the Head of State. During the transfer of power with Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal, for his part, promised to bring together the “living forces of the nation” starting this week. While Emmanuel Macron wants to create momentum around the Olympic year in 2024, the Prime Minister will also have to oversee the organization of the Olympics, particularly in terms of security and transport.