In an effort to revitalize his second term ahead of the elections for the European Parliament, French President Emmanuel Macron named 34-year-old Education Minister Gabriel Attal as his next prime minister.
According to the report, Macron may be trying to move past the controversial immigration and pension reforms from the previous year in order to boost his centrist party’s prospects in the June EU election. However, the move may not necessarily result in a significant political shift.
According to polls, Macron’s supporters are eight to ten percentage points behind far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s party.
Attal, a close Macron friend who rose to prominence as the government spokeswoman during the COVID outbreak, will take over for outgoing Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
Attal is one of the country’s most popular politicians.
He has created a name for himself as a clever minister, at ease on radio shows and in parliament.
Attal will be France’s youngest prime minister and the first to be openly gay.
He and Macron have a combined age just below that of Joe Biden, who is running for a second mandate in this year’s US presidential election.
Macron has struggled to deal with a more turbulent parliament since losing his absolute majority shortly after being reelected in 2022.
Other opposition leaders were quick to say they did not expect much from the change in prime minister, with Macron himself taking on much of the decision-making.
However, MP Patrick Vignal, who belongs to Macron’s Renaissance party, said Attal is “a bit like the Macron of 2017”, 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.
