Gabriel Attal appointed prime minister The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has appointed the country’s 34-year old education minister, Gabriel Attal, as prime minister, French media outlets reported. He is the youngest French PM in modern history and will succeed Élisabeth Borne, who resigned yesterday. The reshuffle comes as Macron is seeking to give fresh impetus to his second mandate ahead of European parliament elections later this year. Summary of the day The French president, Emmanuel Macron, appointed Gabriel Attal as France’s new prime minister. The move came after the president decided to replace Élisabeth Borne, and she resigned yesterday. The reshuffle is widely seen as part of Macron’s effort to reinvigorate a difficult second term as president ahead of European elections in June. Attal, who was serving as France’s education minister, is a popular figure. At 34, he is the youngest prime minister in modern French history. Attal is also France’s first openly gay prime minister. Macron’s allies welcomed the move, and foreign leaders congratulated Attal. Some of the French leadership’s domestic critics said Macron was merely trying to benefit from Attal’s popularity and that the new prime minister would merely function as a spokesperson. Emmanuel Macron’s decision to replace the former prime minister Élisabeth Borne and reshuffle the government is not regarded as a fundamental political shift. Sylvain Maillard, head of Macron’s Renaissance party in parliament, said Gabriel Attal could be relied on to “faithfully” carry Macron’s project for the country. The president is trying to move beyond a difficult past year, including unpopular pension changes and a recent row over the introduction of a hardline immigration law that divided his party and was seen by some as an ideological victory for the ideas of Marine Le Pen and the radicalised right. It is also an attempt to improve the chances of Macron’s centrist party in the June EU ballot where they are polling behind Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party. Here are more images from the handover ceremony. Gabriel Attal thanked Emmanuel Macron for his confidence. “Let’s get to work, with strength, humility and without taboos, in the service of the French people,” he said. Here are photos from Paris, as the new French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, arrived for a handover ceremony. SOS homophobie, an NGO working to combat discrimination against LGBTI people, said, following the announcement that Gabriel Attal is France’s new prime minister, that “we are delighted that being gay or homosexual is no longer an obstacle to holding a senior position.” It added: Society is progressing and this visibility is a step in the right direction. But, the NGO also said: We expect a government that tackles the issue of violence and aggression against LGBTI people head-on, and takes concrete action for equal rights. Far-right politician Marine Le Pen has also weighed in, writing on social media: What can the French expect from this fourth prime minister and fifth government in seven years? Nothing. Tired of this puerile ballet of ambitions and egos, they are waiting for a plan that puts them back at the heart of public priorities. She said the road to change would begin on 9 June, the date of the European parliament election. New French prime minister an ambitious communicator referred to as "baby Macron" Gabriel Attal, 34, who was serving as education minister, has been referred to as a “baby Macron” in terms of his ambition, strong media presence and centrist politics, and is considered the best-known and most recognisable face of the close circle of young politicians around the president. During Attal’s five months defending a hard-line on authority and secularism as education minister – including banning girls in state schools from wearing abayas, or long flowing dresses, and experimenting with introducing school uniform – he shot up the opinion polls as the most popular minister in government. Attal, who has also served as budget minister, became a household name as government spokesperson during the Covid pandemic and is seen a master of political communication. A calm, careful speaker who can sometimes be ferocious in political TV debates against the far right, he is known to believe that it is important “to speak to people’s hearts”. He won support for speaking out about being bullied at school. Attal is also the first openly gay prime minister of France, and is in a civil partnership with Stéphane Séjourné, a member of the European parliament for Macron’s Renaissance party. Although Attal was once part of the centrist wing of the left’s Socialist party, he quit in his 20s to support Macron’s centrist project in 2017. He is seen as a defender of centrist politics in France, and has also in recent months reached out to members of parliament in the right-wing party, Les Républicains, whose support is often crucial for legislation to be passed. He is seen as popular among right-wing politicians in France. Gabriel Attal is becoming France’s prime minister at only 34, making him the youngest prime minister in the country’s modern history. Other European countries, however, have also had young leaders in recent years. Austria’s former leader, Sebastian Kurz, became chancellor at only 31 in 2017. Finland’s former prime minister, Sanna Marin, took over the role at 34, back in 2019. Others were also relatively young when they first won high-profile posts: Hungary’s Viktor Orbán was 35 when he became prime minister for the first time in 1998. And Ireland’s Leo Varadkar was 38 when he first became the country’s leader, as was Estonia’s former prime minister, Jüri Ratas. Emmanuel Macron was 39 when he became France’s president. Gabriel Attal, Emmanuel Macron’s pick for prime minister, is popular in France. Here is an Ipsos poll from December. Who is Gabriel Attal, the French PM who climbed the ranks in record time? In just over a decade, Gabriel Attal has risen from a work experience recruit in the health ministry to the second-highest office of state in France. As of Tuesday, he has become France’s youngest prime minister at 34 and the first openly gay leader of the government. It is a spectacular trajectory, even for someone from Attal’s privileged background, for whom each career advancement appears to have come remarkably easy. In the early years of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency, Attal was one of a group of well-educated young men from comfortable backgrounds picked to advise and support the equally young French leader. Attal distinguished himself from the pack by his willingness to speak out in public on any issue thrown at him and his talent for finding the bon mot and soundbite. The formidable communication skills and ability to think and speak on his feet, parrying questions in parliament and in public, has earned him the nickname “the Word Sniper”. Attal is the son of Yves Attal, a lawyer and film producer of Tunisian Jewish descent who died in 2015, and Marie de Couriss, who is descended from Orthodox Christians from Odesa. He grew up in Paris with his three younger sisters and uses the full name Gabriel Attal de Couriss. In 2019, Attal told the Libération news outlet: “My father said to me, ‘Perhaps you’re Orthodox but you’ll feel Jewish all your life, mainly because you’ll suffer antisemitism because of your name’.” European leaders are congratulating Gabriel Attal. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he knows he can count on Gabriel Attal’s “energy” and “commitment”. The French far left’s Jean-Luc Mélenchon said Gabriel Attal was simply returning to the role of spokesperson, arguing that the function of prime minister has disappeared.