Clearly, the French don’t do anything like the others. “While two men who have long passed retirement age are fighting for the presidential election in the United States, France is giving power to the youth,” notes the German weekly Die Zeit, in unison with the international press. The contrast with Washington appears, it is true, striking: when, on the other side of the Atlantic, Donald Trump (77 years old) launches his campaign to wrest the White House from Joe Biden (81 years old), Emmanuel Macron ( 46 years old) appoints Gabriel Attal (34 years old) to Matignon. “The new French Prime Minister looks like a newborn in the face of America’s gerontocrats”, blow it Financial Times, who believes that the president “plays on the stereotypes that French voters have in mind about age and energy level”.
In the United Kingdom, the weekly The New Statesman now describes France as “the country of young men”, where the president, the Prime Minister but also the leader of the main opposition party, Jordan Bardella (28), stand out for their age. “Ambitious young people have reached the top of the two most important parties in the National Assembly, underlines the British publication. It is a sign of renewal, with this generation having a very different vision from that of experienced politicians. In this regard, France is once again a unique case in Europe.”
But be careful of appearances, nuance however Die Zeit across the Rhine. “There is a trap with age: Macron is no longer the president of young people, because it was mainly the older French people who re-elected him two years ago, asks the German newspaper. If he had promised to completely modernize France when he came to power in 2017, the head of state must increasingly rely on a group of voters who do not necessarily perceive change favorably. paradox that Attal’s appointment only obscures.”