France’s youngest ever prime minister and the first to be named a gay prime minister has been appointed.
French President Emmanuel Macron appointed current Education Minister Gabriel Attal as his new prime minister on the 9th (local time).
The newly appointed minister, Atal, was born in 1989 (34 years old) and hails from the prestigious Paris School of Politics.
Atal became the youngest prime minister of the Fifth Republic, breaking the record of Laurent Fabius, who became prime minister at age 37 in 1984. He also became the first openly gay prime minister in the history of the republic.
Prime Minister Atal campaigned against the “first employment contract law” during his school years, and joined the centre – left socialist party in 2006.
During the 2007 presidential election, he also served in the royal camp of the Socialist Segolene. In 2012, he took on the first government post to be tasked with writing speeches and other missions under then-Minister of Health Marisol Turin.
In 2014, he ran for the local city council and was elected, and after serving as a member of the Socialist Party until 2016, he joined the Forward Republic (LREM) founded by President Macron.
He served as party spokesman in 2018, and was appointed education minister in October that year at the age of just 29. He moved to the position of government spokesman in July 2020, and after President Macron won re-election, he was appointed public accountant in May 2022 and education minister in July last year.
Meanwhile, Minister Atal worked on educational reform by banning the wearing of “Abaya” (long dress), an Islamic costume on campus, and pushing for measures to improve French students’ basic academic ability.
According to a recently released survey, he is also known as the most popular minister in the current Macron government.
After the announcement of the prime minister’s appointment, President Macron also expressed his trust in Atal, saying, “I believe in your energy and commitment to implementing the national rearmament project I’m pushing for.”
Prime Minister Atal’s appointment is interpreted as an attempt to renew the atmosphere after public opinion fell to around 30% as President Macron recently pushed ahead with certain policies such as the Pension Reform Act.
SALLY
ASIA JOURNAL
