GABRIEL ATTAL. Spokesperson and youngest member of the government, at 33 years old Gabriel Attal could climb the ranks within the executive. He would be approached to become minister for the second Macron five-year term.
[Mis à jour le 19 mai 2022 à 12h43] Known for being the youngest member of the government, Gabriel Attal is also a key figure in the five-year term that has just passed. The spokesperson for the government, whose rise is already meteoric, could again climb the steps of power. While Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, work away from prying eyes on the cabinet reshuffle, Gabriel Attal would aspire to promotion and to be appointed head of a ministry. Ambition has already carried Gabriel Attal to the highest political spheres, from his beginnings as a socialist municipal councilor in Vanves in 2017, to a seat as a deputy of the presidential majority in the National Assembly in 2017 and an entry into the government l ‘Next year. The appointment of Gabriel Attal as Minister is all the more likely since the 33-year-old politician has already taken up positions in various cabinets: Secretary of State to the Minister of National Education then to the Head of the government as spokesperson.
Loyal, rigorous and endowed with sympathy capital with the French, the Sciences Po graduate and loyal support of the Head of State is likely to be promoted, speculators put forward in priority the hypothesis of an appointment to the ‘National Education. Will Gabriel Attal be up to it? His first political feats speak for him. A look back at the political and private career of the possible future minister.
Gabriel Attal, legislative candidates and future minister?
Gabriel Attal, deputy for Hauts-de-Seine since 2017, is throwing himself into the water again for the 2022 legislative elections by standing for re-election in the 10th district of Hauts-de-Seine on June 12 and 19. It is under the common banner of the presidential majority that the government spokesperson is a candidate and intends to keep his seat in the hemicycle. While the legislative campaign is already in full swing, it is on another ground that Gabriel Attal could shine: that of the government. The current spokesperson would be mentioned in certain reshuffle lists, sometimes in National Education, where he has already worked under the orders of Jean-Michel Blanquer, sometimes in Higher Education or even in Health, a ministry in which he made his debut in politics.
These are still only rumors, Elisabeth Borne and Emmanuel Macron religiously maintaining the secret around the next ministerial team. For his part, Gabriel Attal did not speak publicly about his governmental ambitions but he would admit behind the scenes that he was tempted to take over from Jean-Michel Blanquer. The school being presented, with health, as one of the main projects of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term, the Ministry of National Education turns out to be a key position, even more than usual. The spokesperson without false note of Gabriel Attal will he be able to lead him to the rue de Grenelle?
From socialist activist to pillar of LREM in government
It was under the label of the PS that Gabriel Attal took his first steps in politics in 2006 to support Ségolène Royal’s candidacy for the 2007 presidential election, but the young man was already defending a vision of the left where humanist values side by side with liberalism. After taking positions and political activism during his studies at Sciences Po Paris, he made his way to the National Assembly and then to the office of the Minister of Health in 2012 and until 2017, with Marisol Touraine. He holds the role of political adviser and is often at the origin of the official speeches, of the missions which will follow it later. The year 2017 was a turning point for Gabriel Attal, who swapped the PS for LREM and joined Emmanuel Macron’s movement from its inception. He also embarked on the legislative race in the 10th district of Hauts-de-Seine and won. Integrated into the core of the party and noted for his aplomb and his sharp 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, and became the youngest member of the government of the Fifth Republic. A young age that makes him appear to some as a political prodigy. Far from making up the numbers, the young man carries important files for the five-year term such as universal national service. His efforts and his performances in the media are appreciated and open his voice to become government spokesperson, i.e. Secretary of State to the Prime Minister, on July 6, 2020.
Origin, education, background… Who is Gabriel Attal?
If Gabriel Attal has the gab when it comes to politics, the man is more discreet about his personal life and surprisingly, nothing predestined the young man to embark on political life. His father, Yves Attal, who died of cancer in 2015, was a lawyer and film producer while his mother, Mayor of Couriss, worked in a production company. Born in 1989 in Clamart in the Hauts-de-Seine, Gabriel Attal grew up in Paris with his three sisters. Since then, the family has grown with the adoption of the son of a first cousin who died around 2015, Nikolai, whose government spokesman admitted to Gala be very close.
The attraction for politics of Gabriel Attal, born in 2002 during the duel between Jean-Marie Le Pen and Jacques Chirac in the second round of the presidential election. The politician was then only 13 years old but followed his parents in a demonstration against the National Front. This political sense is felt later in the study choices of Gabriel Attal, today a graduate of the Ecole alsacienne, of Science Po Paris for a master’s degree in public affairs, and a law degree passed at the university. Paris II Pantheon-Assas. It is an end-of-study internship obtained within the National Assembly which makes the junction between the university course and the political career of Gabriel Attal.
Couple, homosexuality… Who shares the life of Gabriel Attal?
Rather silent about his private life, Gabriel Attal speaks very little of his romantic relationships. He nevertheless reveals his relationship with Stéphane Séjourné, former adviser to Emmanuel Macron and now MEP, on August 20, 2017. The two men included in the restricted spheres of power met and had a “coup immediate lightning “at the beginning of 2015 during a work meeting in Bercy, they told the World in 2021. They are now in a civil partnership.
The formalization of the couple marked the homosexual coming-out of Gabriel Attal. Before his relationship with Stéphane Séjourné, the only publicly known romantic relationship of the government spokesperson was that which united him to singer Joyce Jonathan for two years.