Gabriel Attal becomes France's youngest PM as Macron seeks reset
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[January 09, 2024]
By Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose
PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron appointed 34-year-old
Education Minister Gabriel Attal as his new prime minister on Tuesday,
seeking to breathe new life into his second mandate ahead of European
parliament elections.
The move will not necessarily lead to any major political shift, but
signals a desire for Macron to try to move beyond last year's unpopular
pension and immigration reforms and improve his centrist party's chances
in the June EU ballot.
Opinion polls show Macron's camp trailing far-right leader Marine Le
Pen's party by around eight to ten percentage points.
Attal, a close Macron ally who became a household name as government
spokesman during the COVID pandemic, will replace outgoing Prime
Minister Elisabeth Borne.
One of the country's most popular politicians in recent opinion polls,
Attal has made a name for himself as a savvy minister, at ease on radio
shows and in parliament.
"Dear @GabrielAttal, I know I can count on your energy and your
commitment to implement the project of revitalization and regeneration
that I announced," said Macron, who at the end of last year said he
would announce new political initiatives.
Attal will be France's youngest prime minister and the first to be
openly gay.
He and Macron have a combined age just below that of Joe Biden, who is
running for a second mandate in this year's U.S. presidential election.
Macron has struggled to deal with a more turbulent parliament since
losing his absolute majority shortly after being reelected in 2022.
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Gabriel Attal, newly-named French Junior Education Minister, arrives
to attend the weekly cabinet meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris,
France, October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo
"By appointing Gabriel Attal ... Emmanuel Macron wants to cling to
his popularity in opinion polls to alleviate the pain of an
interminable end to his reign," said Jordan Bardella, the 28-year
old leader of Le Pen's National Rally party.
"Instead, he risks taking the short-lived Education Minister with
him in his fall."
Other opposition leaders were quick to say they did not expect much
from the change in prime minister, with Macron himself taking on
much of the decision-making.
"Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal or someone else, I don't care, it
will just be the same policies," Socialist Party leader Olivier
Faure told France Inter radio.
But MP Patrick Vignal, who belongs to Macron's Renaissance party,
said Attal is "a bit like the Macron of 2017", referring to the
point at which the President first took office as the youngest
leader in modern French history, at the time a popular figure among
voters.
Attal "is clear, he has authority", Vignal said.
(Additional reporting by Tassilo Hummel, Ingrid Melander and Piotr
Lipinski; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Ed Osmond and Jan
Harvey)
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