French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Gabriel Attal as the new prime minister on Tuesday morning, replacing Élisabeth Borne, who resigned on Monday evening. In the afternoon there was the handover between Borne and Attal with a ceremony atMatignon Hotel of Paris, the residence of the French Prime Minister.
Attal had been spokesperson for Jean Castex’s government from 2020 to 2022, and since 20 July he was Minister of Education in Borne’s government. Borne’s resignation was not particularly surprising, given that for weeks Macron had hinted that there would soon be a government reshuffle and many believed that Borne would be the one to be removed.
Attal is 34 years old and is the youngest prime minister ever in the French Fifth Republic, the one established in 1958 with the seventh Constitution: before in France there had been different forms of state and government. He is also the first openly homosexual prime minister: he is married to the French MEP Stéphane Séjourné.
Attal is part of Renaissance, Macron’s party, and his nomination to replace Borne was rather obvious. He is considered very close to Macron, and last December 20 during a television program the French president had praised his “energy and courage in waging the necessary battles”, promising him “a government future” and perhaps “a more ambitious destiny”. .
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Under the French system, the prime minister has an important role in coordinating government action, but not a strong power of initiative, given that in France the political direction of a government is the prerogative of the president. The first task of the future prime minister will however be to form a new government that promotes the objective announced by Macron in his end-of-year greetings: “industrial, economic, European rearmament”, but also “civic”, also in relation to the vast school reform project that Gabriel Attal has carried out in recent months.