France: New Prime Minister Gabriel Attal Replaces Outgoing Borne

Gabriel Attal was officially appointed Prime Minister of the French Republic by Emmanuel Macron. The white smoke came after a morning of talks, in which the former education minister, widely seen as the favorite (other names included former agriculture minister Julien Denormandie and former defense minister Sebastien Lecornu) to replace Elisabeth Borne. Attal, 34, is the youngest head of government of the Fifth Republic.

Active member of the Socialist Party since socialist François Hollande was president of the republic, Attal was first elected as an MP with Macron in 2017 and served as Secretary of State for Youth and later as a government spokesman. Under Macron’s second government, he was minister of public finance and therefore education.

Elisabeth Borne, the outgoing prime minister, resigned on January 8 after speaking with Macron at the Elysee Palace. The President then expressed his gratitude “from the bottom of my heart for your exemplary work in the service of the nation” via X social media platform.

Macron has therefore chosen a representative with a stronger personality than Borne to lead the party for the European elections in June. But just as the former prime minister, Attal will have limited political activity given the lack of an absolute majority in parliament. Thus, Attal, who they call “Macron’s protégé,” will become the new face, with whom the president hopes to renew his second mandate. A turning point was made between the lines of his year-end speech, in which he said, “After economic rearmament, rearmament of the state and our public services, we will need to undertake our civil rearmament.”