A few hours after the resignation of Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal was appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron. He will agree with the president on the rest of the reshuffle.
Gabriel Attal is appointed Prime Minister. The President of the Republic has just announced on Tuesday January 9 the promotion of the young Minister of Education to the post of head of government. At 34, he became the youngest tenant of Matignon under the Fifth Republic, dethroning Laurent Fabius who had been appointed at 37. A meteoric rise for the man who started politics in 2006 with the Socialist Party.
Her name was given as a favorite since the resignation of Elisabeth Borne on Monday January 8. However, a few days earlier, other followers of Emmanuel Macron were cited for Matignon, led by Sébastien Lecornu and Julien Denormandie. It was ultimately on Gabriel Attal that Emmanuel Macron made his choice.
This appointment is only the first of a reshuffle which still raises many questions. Which ministers will leave the government? Will Elisabeth Borne be given a new portfolio? Will new arrivals enter? Who will succeed Gabriel Attal at the Ministry of Education? Answers should arrive in the coming days, or even hours.
The French favorite
Gabriel Attal is rewarded for his excellent popularity rating. With 30% favorable opinion, the Minister of National Education is the favorite political figure of the French, according to the Elabe barometer of January 4. An appointment breaking with the habits ofEmmanuel Macron, which has until now favored personalities little known to the general public and unlikely to overshadow it. Unlike his predecessors under Macron, Gabriel Attal did not go through the senior civil service. His profile ultimately recalls that of the President of the Republic.
What about the rest of the redesign? Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal must now agree on the new government team. The president of MoDem François Bayrou, ally of Emmanuel Macron, spoke out in favor of setting up a tight team, after the storm caused by the immigration law within the presidential camp. Several ministers who criticized this law could be pushed out, like Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport, Patrice Vergriete, Minister of Housing, Rolland Lescure, Minister of Industry, or even Rima Abdul Malak , Minister of Culture.
A council of ministers is scheduled for Wednesday, January 10. Perhaps the first with the entire team of the new Attal government.
Express biography of Gabriel Attal
It was under the PS label that Gabriel Attal took his first steps in politics, in 2006, to support the candidacy of Ségolène Royal in the 2007 presidential election. But already, the young man defended a vision of the left where humanist values had to coexist with liberalism. After taking positions and political activism during his studies at Sciences Po Paris, Gabriel Attal found a place in the National Assembly then in the office of the Minister of Health in 2012 and, until 2017, with Marisol Touraine. He plays the role of political advisor and is often at the origin of official speeches.
The year 2017 is a turning point in the biography of Gabriel Attal, who swapped the PS for LREM and joined Emmanuel Macron’s movement from its creation. He also entered the legislative race in the 10th constituency of Hauts-de-Seine and won. Integrated into the core of the party and noted for his aplomb and his keen political sense, despite his young age, he was propelled to the role of spokesperson for La République en Marche in 2018 until his entry into government.
Gabriel Attal was appointed Secretary of State to the Minister of National Education at the age of 29. A young age which makes him appear in the eyes of some as a “prodigy” or a “star” of politics. Far from playing the role, the young man is responsible for important issues for the five-year term such as universal national service. His efforts and performances in the media are appreciated in high places and open the way for him to become government spokesperson, either Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, in July 2020, then Minister of Action and Public Accounts for Emmanuel Macron’s second term in May 2022. Gabriel Attal takes a new step on July 20, 2023 by being appointed head of the Ministry of National Education.
As part of the ministerial reshuffle announced by the Élysée on Thursday July 20, 2023, Gabriel Attal succeeds Pap Ndiaye as Minister of Education. During his first speech in this new position, the young minister set “three priorities”: “putting respect for authority and fundamental knowledge back at the heart of the school”, stemming the teacher recruitment crisis in order to “guarantee that each student will have a teacher in front of them every day”, and finally to accentuate “the fight against school bullying”.
Barely named, Gabriel Attal must deal with the birth of a controversy linked to his own education at a private school. The minister defends himself by saying: “The fight is to guarantee that the whole school can provide all parents with the essentials of what they expect for the children.”
If Gabriel Attal has some flair when it comes to politics, the man is more discreet about his personal life. His father, Yves Attal, who died in 2015 from cancer, was a lawyer and film producer while his mother, Maire de Couriss, worked in a production company. Born in 1989 in Clamart in Hauts-de-Seine, Gabriel Attal grew up in Paris with his three sisters. Since then, the Attal family has grown with the adoption of the son of a first cousin who died around 2015, Nikolaï, whose minister admitted to Gala be very close.
Gabriel Attal’s attraction to politics was born during the 2002 presidential election, which pitted Jean-Marie Le Pen against Jacques Chirac in the second round. The minister was only 13 years old at the time, but followed his parents in a demonstration against the National Front. This political sense is later felt in the study choices of Gabriel Attal, today a graduate of the Alsatian School, of Science Po Paris for a master’s degree in public affairs, and of a law degree obtained at the university Paris II Panthéon-Assas. It is an end-of-study internship obtained within the National Assembly which will link the university career and the political career of Gabriel Attal.
Gabriel Attal was born on March 16, 1989. He therefore joined the government of Edouard Philippe at the age of 29, making him the youngest member of a government of the Fifth Republic. He was appointed Minister of National Education at the age of 34.