GABRIEL ATTAL. It’s official. The Minister was appointed to National Education this Thursday, July 20, 2023. Gabriel Attal coveted this function during the previous reshuffle. A very tense return to school awaits the future tenant of the Rochechouart hotel, with hot issues to manage.
[Mis à jour le 20 juillet 2023 à 21h00] Gabriel Attal has been appointed Minister of National Education, a position of high importance within the government. The news was made official this Thursday, July 20, 2023, marking a significant step in the career of the 34-year-old young minister. He had already coveted this prestigious portfolio for a year, during the previous cabinet reshuffle. His appointment is testimony to the confidence that the President of the Republic places in him. Gabriel Attal has already had the opportunity to work behind the scenes at the Ministry of National Education as Secretary of State to Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer, from 2018 to 2022. This prior experience will undoubtedly allow him to better understand the issues and current issues. However, he will now have to live up to this new function, because managing the Ministry of National Education is not an easy task. His predecessors, Jean-Michel Blanquer and Pap Ndiaye, can attest to the challenges and complexities associated with this position. During the transfer of power with Pap Ndiaye, the young minister assured that he had “the most beautiful and noble of missions: to serve the nation and its future”. He says it bluntly, his objective will be to “give back to school the mission which is its own: to build the future of each of our children, without exception, and therefore to build the future of the nation”.
As the summer holidays approach, Gabriel Attal will not have the luxury of resting. Indeed, he will have to take over the current files while actively preparing for the coming school year. This promises to be potentially eventful, in particular with the prospect of a teacher pact aimed at reforming the remuneration of teachers. This project is generating debate and reluctance, and it will be up to the new minister to find solutions that can bring together a broad consensus. In addition to the sensitive issue of teacher compensation, other important projects await Gabriel Attal. Questions relating to the baccalaureate and post-baccalaureate admission will also have to be addressed. These crucial subjects require appropriate measures to improve the French education system.
National Education is a ministry that Gabriel Attal already knows, at least in part. Between 2018 and 2020, the politician was Secretary of State to Jean-Michel Blanquer, he notably had his hand in matters related to youth and the establishment of universal national service (SNU). From now on, it is at the head of the ministry that the rising star of the majority is. And this appointment has a taste of victory, since the minister had not hidden his desire to be responsible for this portfolio at the start of Emmanuel Macron’s second term.
Cited several times for various ministries, including that of National Education, in 2022, Gabriel Attal, who at the time was government spokesperson, had finally landed in Bercy alongside Bruno Le Maire, as Minister of Public Accounts and Budget. An appointment which did not concern a full-fledged ministry as one might expect, already sounded like a promotion for the 30-year-old. Gabriel Attal also took advantage of this function to show his qualities as a politician, manager and communicator.
Gabriel Attal, the brand new Minister in charge of National Education, is facing a major challenge: the teacher recruitment crisis, which threatens the proper functioning of the school system. To remedy this, lasting solutions must be found. One avenue to explore is that opened by Pap Ndiaye, who proposes the return of competitions in the first degree, to bac+3 instead of bac+5. Among the other levers to be activated to strengthen the attractiveness of the profession, the increase in remuneration appears to be an essential option. However, the approaches tried so far have aroused the hostility of the unions and the perplexity of the teaching profession, who feel affected by a deep sense of downgrading. It is therefore crucial to find a balance between a necessary budgetary effort and remuneration conditions aligned with new missions.
At the same time, the fight against school bullying is announced as a “priority for the start of the 2023 school year” by the Prime Minister. This crucial issue will have to be addressed with determination and concrete measures put in place to protect students and ensure a healthy and safe learning environment.
The recurring controversies on secularism, like the debate on the wearing of abayas, will also feature prominently on the agenda of the Minister of National Education. He will have to demonstrate finesse and openness to ease tensions and promote constructive dialogue around these delicate issues.
In addition, another priority for the new minister will be to correct certain effects considered harmful from the Blanquer baccalaureate, which lead to an excessively high absenteeism rate in high schools, especially during the third quarter. In-depth reflection on the modalities of this examination is necessary to guarantee its effectiveness and fairness.
Barely named, Gabriel Attal had to deal with the birth of a controversy linked to his schooling. Indeed, the young minister went through private school. However, he defends the idea that his past as a schoolboy in the private sector will not prevent him from accomplishing his task. “Yes I went to private school and I do not have to deny or apologize for this choice that my parents made at the time. I do not believe that the fight is to apologize for this choice, “he assured during the transfer of power. And to conclude: “The fight is to guarantee that the whole school can provide all parents with the essentials of what they expect for children.”
Biography
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 Attal family has grown with the adoption of the son of a first cousin who died around 2015, Nikolaï, whose minister confessed to Gala be very close.
The attraction for Gabriel Attal’s politics was born during the 2002 presidential election, which pitted Jean-Marie Le Pen against Jacques Chirac in the second round. The minister 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 Alsatian School, of Science Po Paris for a master’s degree in public affairs, and a law degree from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas. It is an end-of-study internship obtained within the National Assembly which will make the junction between the university course and the political career of Gabriel Attal.
It was under the PS label 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 should rub shoulders with liberalism. After taking positions and political activism during his studies at Sciences Po Paris, Gabriel Attal 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 official speeches.
The year 2017 was a turning point in the biography of Gabriel Attal, who swapped the PS for LREM and joined Emmanuel Macron’s movement from its inception. He is also embarking on the race for legislative in the 10th constituency 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 which makes him appear in the eyes of some as a “prodigy” or a “star” of politics. 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 in high places and open his voice 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 climbed a new step on July 20, 2023 by being appointed head of the Ministry of National Education.