Macron appoints rising star Gabriel Attal as French prime minister

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has picked Gabriel Attal, the outgoing minister of education, to be France’s new prime minister.

“The President of the Republic has appointed Mr Gabriel Attal as prime minister, and tasked him with forming a government,” the French presidency announced in a press release Tuesday.

Elisabeth Borne, the second woman to serve as French prime minister, resigned Monday ahead of a much-anticipated Cabinet reshuffle. The 34-year-old Attal becomes the youngest-ever and first openly gay prime minister in French history.

Macron is looking to rejuvenate his troubled second term after facing mass protests against a pensions reform last year and bitter dissensions within his own camp over an immigration bill which left his governing coalition badly bruised.

Attal, an ascendant star, has climbed the political ladder after leaving the Socialist Party in 2016 to back Macron’s presidential bid. He was elected to parliament in 2017 and joined the government a year later as secretary of state for the youth, becoming the youngest Cabinet member since the start of France’s Fifth Republic. He later served as government spokesperson, then budget minister, has been minister of education since July — and now becomes the fourth head of government to take office during Macron’s presidency.

Macron currently holds a lowly 30 percent approval rating according to aggregated polls and his coalition trails the far-right National Rally by about 10 points in European election polling.

Attal was picked to be prime minister ahead of political heavyweights including Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu. As chief of the education ministry, Attal ordered a ban on abayas, long robes worn by some Muslim women, in schools. He also announced a series of measures designed to improve pupils’ academic performances. 

Attal quickly attracted media attention and overtook former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe as the French politician with the most favorable opinion ratings according to an IPSOS poll released in December. 

Attal has opened up about his personal life and youth to explain his political action, describing acts of bullying and homophobia he endured during high school.

French pollsters have started to include Attal in presidential surveys, with one IFOP poll showing him as the pro-Macron camp’s second-best choice in 2027 behind Philippe, who has made all but official his plans to run.

“When I appointed [Gabriel Attal] as education minister, I knew he had the necessary energy and courage for the task,” Macron said in a TV interview shortly before the new year. “I’m proud to have nurtured new talents.”

Education policies pushed by Attal during his relatively short tenure in the powerful ministry included bypassing parents’ approval to hold students back a year and elevating the difficulty level of standardized tests.

Attal left the Socialist Party in 2016 to join Macron | Sylvain Thomas/AFP via Getty Images

Attal also spearheaded a new civic service for teenagers and spoke out in favor of trialing compulsory uniforms in schools, a proposal backed by Eric Ciotti, president of the conservative Les Républicains party, and France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron.

During his New Year’s Eve address, Macron vowed to make education one of his key priorities for the new year and “restore students’ performance level, teachers’ authority and the strength of secular education”.