34-year-old French education minister, has been named the country’s new prime minister, a history-making appointment by President Emmanuel Macron as he looks to jumpstart his government’s flagging popularity.
Gabriel Attal will be France’s youngest ever prime minister and also the first openly gay man to serve in the post making him one of the world’s most prominent and powerful LGBTQ politicians.
He is a rising star in Macron’s Renaissance Party and he has served as minister of education and national youth since July.
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Gabriel enacted a controversial ban on the wearing of the abaya in French public schools and has worked on raising awareness of bullying in schools.
“I know I can count on your energy and your commitment,” Macron said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
In another post, Gabriel Attal thanked Macron for his “trust” and vowed to “keep control of our destiny” and “unleash our French potential.”
He talked about education, inflation, the liberalization of the French economy, and youth development as among the country’s priorities in a speech after his nomination, but highlighted education as “the mother of our battles, the one which must be at the heart of our priorities.”
“As prime minister, I will dedicate all the necessary means for its success. It will be one of my absolute priorities as head of government,” he added.
Attal, like the French president, was aligned with the center-left Socialist Party before he joined Macron’s centrist political movement. In recent years his politics have drifted at times to the right, though he has maintained a shape-shifting political identity in the mold of his boss.
As prime minister, he will be charged with forming a new government and ensuring the passage of legislation that advances the president’s agenda. Most power, however, lies with the French presidency.
Gabriel Attal replaces Elisabeth Borne, who resigned from her post on Monday after a tumultuous 20-month tenure marked by unpopular retirement reforms and the urban riots last summer that followed the police shooting of a teenage boy of Algerian descent.
At a handover ceremony alongside Borne on Tuesday, Attal described his predecessor as “a PM of action and courage.”
“Your personal story and your political ethics make you exemplary. We know what we owe you,” Gabriel Attal stated.
Elisabeth Borne meanwhile said she had “carried out the projects that seemed right and necessary for our country” and was “proud of the work accomplished during these almost 20 months.”
Gabriel Attal was the government spokesman during the pandemic season, which immediately boosted his profile among the general French public.
Gabriel Attal, 34-year-old political career has since progressed at lightning speed for a man of his age. During Macron’s second term, Gabriel Attal was tapped to lead the ministry of public works and public accounts before becoming education minister.