PARIS: France’s president named the country’s education and youth minister as the country’s new premier on Tuesday, filling the recently vacated position promptly.
“The President of the Republic appointed Gabriel Attal as Prime Minister and put him in charge of forming a new government,” the presidency said in a statement.
President Emmanuel Macron congratulated Attal and expressed confidence in him in a post on X.
Marine Le Pen, a former presidential candidate and far-right Macron challenger, slammed the selection, writing on X, “What can the French people expect from this fourth prime minister and fifth government in seven years?” Nothing.”
Left-wing politicians such France Olivier Faure and Jean-Luc Melenchon also criticized Macron, claiming he was “succeeding himself.” Attal is known as a “mini-Macron.”
Mathilde Panot of the left-wing LFI previously referred to Attal as “Macron Junior, expert in arrogance.”
Expectations have grown in recent days that Macron will reorganize his Cabinet.
Following Elisabeth Borne’s resignation as premier on Monday, possibly the first step in a reshuffle, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin stated he intends to stay at his post at least until the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.
“I am a guy of integrity and duty… “I love to finish the work that has been started,” he told reporters in Paris, suggesting his desire to remain in the new Cabinet, according to daily Le Figaro.
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Following Borne’s resignation on Monday, Macron thanked her on X for her “exemplary” contribution to the French people.
Borne was appointed prime minister in May 2022, and her departure follows the late-year enactment of a tough immigration measure.
She had come under fire for lawfully avoiding a parliamentary vote when there was no majority support, including controversial pension measures in the first half of 2023.
The nation’s new prime minister, who was born in 1989, previously served as government spokesperson and minister of public accounts. At the age of 34, Attal will be one of the world’s youngest heads of government, if not the youngest.
