In the next French presidential election in 2027, far-right Marine Le Pen will most likely be present and the current president will certainly be absent Emmanuel Macron.

On the one hand, Le Pen because her party appears “Ganian” in the opinion polls, and Macron because he is prohibited from running for the presidency of the French Republic for a third time. Given this, the question that is already plaguing French and international analysts is who, after Chirac and Macron, will manage (if they do) to stop, once again, the Far Right’s assault on the seizure of power in France.

After the latest government reshuffle, the name that is heard the most is that of the thirty-four-year-old Gabriel Attal whom President Macron appointed as the country’s prime minister, replacing Elizabeth Bourne. Atal belongs to the group of thirty-year-old politicians who appeared in the news in 2017, supporting Macron and who seem to share his views completely.

He, like Emmanuel Macron, comes from the once powerful Socialist Party of France and fully embraces the view that the modern political confrontation is no longer between the Right and the Left, but between the opponents of globalization and those who believe that the France can benefit from its opening to the world. Therefore, he has no problem declaring his allegiance to social liberalism, just like Macron’s mentor. He also has no inhibitions against the adoption of sometimes extremely conservative political positions, such as the return of the subject of political education, but also the student apron to the French education system. Political positions that face the criticisms and objections from the left, but also that seem to politically short-circuit the extreme right that sees the Macron faction, without fear and passion, “entering its fields”.

Having already, during Bourne’s prime ministership, promoted difficult legislative arrangements, on issues such as pensions and immigration, President Macron now appears convinced that with Attal as prime minister he can proceed with the political, social, economic and cultural transformation that, as he often points out, France needs it, but so does the rest of Europe. Gabriel Atal will attempt with this ideological arsenal to reverse the far-right dynamic and refute the opinion polls that show Le Pen’s party far ahead of the European elections next June. If he achieves the reversal then the chances of him being Le Pen’s opponent in the 2027 presidential election are high. If not, consultations will begin to find alternative solutions, with former French president Nicolas Sarkozy already talking about Christine Lagarde.