Who is Gabriel Attal, France’s youngest, first openly gay PM?

Gabriel Attal is set to become France’s next prime minister, as Emmanuel Macron seeks to revive his presidency with a fresh government. The cabinet reshuffle is also part of Macron’s efforts to give fresh impetus to his second term, particularly in anticipation of the upcoming European Parliament elections later this year, The Guardian reported.

“The president of the republic appointed Mr. Gabriel Attal prime minister, and tasked him with forming a government,” a presidential statement released Tuesday said.

Who is Gabriel Attal?

Macron appointed the 34-year-old Education Minister as his new prime minister on Tuesday. He will be France’s youngest prime minister and the first to be openly gay. The record of being France’s youngest post-war prime minister was previously held by the leftist Laurent Fabius, who was 37 when he was named prime minister by Francois Mitterrand in 1984, BBC reported.

Gabriel Attal is set to succeed Elisabeth Borne, who resigned on Monday, as the new Prime Minister, according to reports from RTL radio and BFM TV.

He joined the Socialist Party when he was 17. Attal, a close ally of Macron, is known for his prominent role as government spokesperson during the Covid pandemic. Subsequently, he was appointed as a junior minister in the finance ministry and later assumed the position of education minister in 2023.

He is one of the country’s most popular politicians in recent opinion polls and has earned a reputation as a savvy minister comfortable both on radio shows and in parliamentary settings.

Upon assuming the role of education minister last year, Attal’s first move was to ban the Muslim abaya dress in state schools, as per DW. This decision garnered praise from conservatives, despite his own background rooted in left-wing ideology.

In 2018, during Macron’s first mandate, Attal was outed by an old school associate when he was appointed as a junior minister.

“Gabriel Attal is a bit like the Macron of 2017,” MP Patrick Vignal was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters, referring to the point at which the President first took office as the youngest leader in modern French history, at the time a popular figure among voters.

Attal recently appeared on a famous TV show, recounting an experience from his middle school days when he was bullied by a former classmate. He shared how he was targeted on a blog created to rate classmates’ physiques during the early days of the Internet revolution.

Vignal, who belongs to Macron’s Renaissance party and first met Attal more than ten years ago, added that the education minister “is clear, he has authority”.

“The Macron-Attal duo can bring a new lease of life (to the government),” Harris Interactive pollster Jean-Daniel Levy was quoted as saying by news agency Reuters.

While the transition may not necessarily lead to a significant political shuft, it signifies Macron’s intention to move past the unpopular pension and immigration reforms from last year. The aim is to enhance the prospects of his centrist party in the upcoming June EU ballot.

Opinion polls show Macron’s camp trailing far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s party by around eight to ten percentage points.

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