Gabriel Attal was appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron in January 2024, at the age of 34.
Gabriel Attal was appointed Prime Minister on January 9, 2024, at the age of 34. An age which made him the youngest tenant of Matignon under the Fifth Republic, dethroning Laurent Fabius, who was appointed at 37 years old. A meteoric rise for the man who started politics in 2006 with the Socialist Party. Minister of National Education before his appointment to Matignon, Gabriel Attal succeeded Elisabeth Borne, who resigned on January 8.
Gabriel Attal, when he took office, was credited with an excellent popularity rating. With 30% favorable opinion, the Minister of National Education was in fact the favorite political figure of the French, according to the Elabe barometer of January 4. Unlike his predecessors during the Macron era, Gabriel Attal did not go through the senior civil service. His profile ultimately recalls that of the President of the Republic.
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 the movementEmmanuel Macron 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 five-year issues 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 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 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 make the connection between 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.