Gabriel Attal is the new Prime Minister of France, who at 34 years old is the youngest and the first openly gay Prime Minister in the Republic, as President Macron attempts to breathe fresh life into his trouble-stricken government.
President Emmanuel Macron has appointed an up-and-coming party loyalist to the key position of Prime Minister in his government after forcing the previous incumbent Élisabeth Borne out of the post yesterday afternoon. Gabriel Attal, who is in a civil union with the leader of Emmanuel Macron’s governing Renaissance party, the MEP Stéphane Séjourné, had been education minister for just six months before becoming Prime Minister, and was first elcted to parliament in 2017.
He is seen as a high-flyer rapidly rising through French politics, having attended an elite Paris school and university. Britain’s largest Jewish newspaper the Jewish News reports of Attal’s background: “Said to be the country’s most popular politician, he is of mixed cultural and religious heritage, with a Jewish father and a Russian Orthodox Christian mother.” Attal is the first openly gay French Prime Minister.
Under the French system the President — Emmanuel Macron in this case — sets the tone and direction of the state, while the Prime Minister deals with the day-to-day business of running the government. In practice, this means the Prime Minister acts as a human shield for the President, as was the case with Borne who has now been cast aside after taking much of the heat for the implementation of Macron’s policies over the past nearly two years.
Perhaps the best example of the PM taking hits for the President has been Borne’s regular invocations of article 49.3 of the French constitution — 23 times in less than two years — the “nuclear option” allowing bills to be passed by Presidential fiat rather than through a vote in Parliament. This has been essential for the Macron government, which has been struggling on as a minority administration, but it has proven wildly unpopular with those who say it is undermining democracy, leading to protests and dwindling poll ratings.
Macron faces the European Parliament elections this year, which won’t directly impact on his ability to govern at home but will starkly illustrate how unpopular his brand is likely to prove with voters. Polling suggests Macron’s party is coming in third in the country, ten points behind the leading right wing populists of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally. As The Guardian notes: “Macron – once known as “the golden boy” of French politics for his youth, dynamism and ambition – will be banking on the youthful, dynamic and ambitious Attal to invigorate a government weakened by its lack of parliamentary majority and enthuse a younger generation of disillusioned voters in the run-up to the European elections.”
Le Pen responded to Attal’s appointment on Tuesday, writing that the French people are “Tired of this childish ballet of ambitions and egos, they are waiting for a project that puts them back at the heart of public priorities” and that the path towards change “begins on June 9th”, the EU parliament elections.
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