Gabriel Atal, who was appointed prime minister on Tuesday, becomes at 34 the youngest head of government in the history of the French Republic, a thematic rise for one of the most popular figures in Emmanuel Macron’s camp.

“Impeccable”, “good student”, “the best embodiment of Macron’s DNA”: the phenomenon Atal, the politician who was already the benjamin of the government in 2017 and then the newest Minister of National Education, was finally imposed to succeed the Elizabeth Bourne at the Matignon Prime Minister’s Palace to general surprise.

The most popular figure in the government and the presidential majority, according to one in two French people, Gabriel Atal is also the first openly gay head of the French government.

His appointment comes as Macron’s second five-year term faces difficulties: without a majority in the National Assembly, faced with the rise of the far right, the French president is struggling to breathe life into his second term. The embattled passage of much-contested pension reform, and more recently an immigration law backed by the far right and dividing the presidential majority, have left their mark.

Coming from the movement of young supporters of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former left-wing leader who fell out of favor after being arrested for sexual assault in New York, Gabriel Attal was among the first socialists to follow Emmanuel Macron in the 2016 creation , of the party of Forward! (En Marche!) which was his springboard for the presidential palace of the Elysees.

“A bone for Gabriel to gnaw on”

After Macron’s victory in 2017, this film producer’s son, who studied at Paris’s prestigious Alsace School, was elected MP in a right-wing fiefdom in the Hauts-de-Seine district on the outskirts of Paris.

He entered the government through the small door: he was assigned the humble Ministry of Youth, but rose to prominence because of his “capacity for work” and his “political sense” as well as his avowed ambition. “If I banned myself from things, then I probably wouldn’t be where I am today,” he readily admitted at the time.

In July 2020, then Prime Minister Jean Castex wondered: “Have we found another bone for young Gabriel to gnaw on?” To sharpen his teeth, Benjamin eventually took the position of government representative.

From TV sets to press conferences, Gabriel Atal has excelled in this service, which has been marked by the Covid crisis, although his confidence sometimes betrays him.

However, he stands out as one of the few members of the government who gained popularity in public opinion.

gabriel attal

Abaya ban

After his re-election in 2022, Emmanuel Macron offers him the Budget (Finance) ministry, where his comfort with the media allows him to be one of the few ministers sent to the front line to defend his unpopular reform pension.

The new reward will not be long: from July 2023, Gabriel Atal takes over the Ministry of National Education.

“Shock of knowledge”, “school of rights and duties”, position in favor of school uniform, school ban on the abaya, the traditional Muslim dress that covers the whole body, the young minister, omnipresent, is in the forefront, covers the space of communication and appeals to the older people who form the heart of Macron’s electorate.

A cabinet minister expressed her surprise a few weeks ago at the buzz surrounding this “apparatchik”, who even his own people described as an “annoying first grader”.

He is a “Mr. Macron junior, who specialized in arrogance and contempt,” criticized the head of parliament of the radical left, Mathilde Panot, for her part.