‘Mini Macron’ is country’s youngest and first openly gay PM

Gabriel Attal, France’s 34-year-old education chief, has been promoted by Emmanuel Macron to head a revamped government.

Gabriel Attal is welcomed by outgoing prime minister Elisabeth Borne as he arrives for the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris on Tuesday. Picture: AFp

Gabriel Attal, France’s 34-year-old education chief, has been promoted by President Emmanuel Macron to head a revamped government, making him France’s youngest and first openly gay prime minister.

A Macron protege and former Socialist, Attal replaced Elisabeth Borne, the president’s third prime minister since 2017, in a reshuffle designed to re-energise the faltering centrist government as it prepares for tough European parliamentary elections in June and the Paris summer Olympics.

Macron dismissed Borne, 62, on Monday after 20 difficult months in office, most of them without a parliamentary majority for Macron’s Renaissance party. In the handover ceremony at the Elysee palace, Attal promised “audacity and movement” under his leadership. “The youngest president in history is appointing the youngest prime minister,” he said. I want to see it as a symbol of audacity.”

Macron, 46, said he expected Attal to revive the spirit of change that he brought to office at the head of his start-up centrist movement in 2017. “I know I can count on your energy and your commitment to implement the project of revitalisation and regeneration,” Macron said on Twitter/X.

The radical left and populist right parties that dominate the opposition were scathing, dismissing the inexperienced Attal as a “messenger boy” and “spokesman” for Macron. “What can the French hope for from this fourth prime minister and this fifth government in seven years? Nothing,” Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-wing National Rally, said.

Commentators, however, saw the appointment as a shift away from the style of Borne, a stern technocrat. Youthful and articulate, Attal is one of France’s most popular politicians and has presidential ambitions.

His sexuality and civil union with Stephane Sejourne, an MEP and general secretary of Renaissance, has drawn fire from the hard right and negative reaction from some conservatives. Gay rights groups welcomed his appointment. It “goes in the right direction, showing that in 2024 it’s possible to be a homosexual prime minister,” SOS Homophobia, a campaign group, said.

Attal has become a darling of the conservative opposition whose support Macron needs to push through legislation, because of his firm leadership of education, France’s biggest ministry.

An appeal to the right is vital for Macron, given the rising tide of support for Le Pen and her party with the European elections and a presidential election on the horizon for 2027. The new prime minister will preside over a reshuffled cabinet chosen by Macron and his staff at the Elysee Palace.

Borne’s government struggled to impose deeply unpopular pension reforms and pass an immigration law after losing its majority control of parliament. A week of ethnic riots in the summer further damaged the government’s image. Borne’s popularity slumped, along with Macron’s which has sagged to about 26 per cent approval.

Several heavyweights in Macron’s Renaissance party, including Bruno Le Maire, the finance minister, were reported to have resisted the anointment of such an inexperienced politician as their boss. Attal was, however, said to be strongly backed by Brigitte Macron, the president’s wife, an education advocate and former teacher.

Attal is the youngest government head in France’s 62-year-old presidential system, in which prime ministers are appointed by the head of state. They remain subordinate and are expected to shield the president by taking the political heat while executing his orders.

The promotion of a high-profile gay man would have been unthinkable until the 21st century in France, which adopted same-sex marriage in 2013. One of Marine Le Pen’s senior MPs, Sebastien Chenu, is a gay activist.

Attal has previously given interviews where he has addressed being gay and in politics. “Posing for pictures with my boyfriend [is something] that straight politicians have always done so why shouldn’t gays do it,” he told Le Monde in 2021.

THE TIMES